


The Soldier & The Spy: Extras

by andipxndy



Series: The Soldier & The Spy [3]
Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz, NCIS
Genre: Adding tags as I go along, Alex actually trying to live a positive life in San Fran, Dad!Gibbs, F/M, Gen, a rewrite of the original, basically a bunch of fillers, give the boys some peace, originally posted on ff.net, post-season 8, teens go on cute first date
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2019-06-10 15:17:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15294297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andipxndy/pseuds/andipxndy
Summary: A series of oneshots following the lives of the characters of the universe of "The Soldier and The Spy" outside of the main stories. Starting with the NCIS side, over in Virginia and Washington D.C., and eventually incorporating Alex over in San Francisco (following the plot of my series).





	1. A Date

**Author's Note:**

> Original Written: December 2011  
> Rewritten and Updated: July 2018
> 
> Hi guys! So, I know it's been ages since I wrote for this fic [The Gibbs Project: Extras], but with all of the updates to the original story and its sequel, I felt as if it was also time to rewrite these oneshots, since they all fit into the timeline somewhere. I'm still taking prompts for oneshot ideas, so I can try and slot them into the timeline, and once I've completed Rider's Return and get started on Scorpia's Return again (two sequels to The Gibbs Project) I'll also be starting on oneshots for the Alex Rider side of the series (heck, I might even start earlier if there's enough demand for it).
> 
> Anyway, since I've now got a name for the series and I know where I kind of want to go with it, I decided to go ahead and post it as a new story, but with the same oneshots. The original will be staying up for you guys to read (though I don't know why you'd want to do that) but I'll be posting here now.
> 
> So, ladies and gentlemen and awesome peeps who don't identify as either, read ahead for the first rewrite of my oneshots!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following the ending of The Gibbs Project, Andrew and Alice finally go on their first date - a coffee shop date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter originally written: December 2011  
> Rewrite completed: July 2018

_Subject: Parkson, Andrew_

_Date: (25th) June 2012_

_Location: Virginia, U.S._

"So, how are you getting to the coffee shop, then?"

Andrew glanced up from where he was fumbling with the zipper on his hoodie, blinking at Gibbs with wide eyes as he took his time to comprehend the question.

After a good couple of weeks of regaining his courage and trying to find time in his schedule of homework and sports (he'd re-joined some of his school sports teams at the suggestion of his psychologist in an effort to find a way to release some of his pent-up energy and frustration, and it was working wonders on his sleep patterns), Andrew had finally decided to pick a date and time for his coffee date with Alice. Which happened to be that afternoon, at a coffee shop Ziva had recommended just the previous week.

Part of him was really excited about it – this was his first date  _ever_ , with a girl he really liked (and happened to be his best friend), and he felt as if he had ideas all planned out for what they could do and talk about – but at the same time, he was incredibly nervous. After all, this was his  _first date ever_ , with  _a girl he really liked_ , who also happened to be his  _best friend_ , and if he screwed this up there was no way he was ever going to live it down or restore whatever lost friendship he had. Alice was his  _best friend_ , and he didn't know how he would be able to cope with losing her.

All of this flitted through his mind in the little while it took him to answer Gibbs' question; the man waited patiently for Andrew's answer, his eyes watching him over the top of the reading glasses he wore to read the morning paper. He knew that sometimes Andrew had to go deeply into his thoughts and didn't like to be disturbed whilst he was thinking, so he just waited.

The sudden blinking told Gibbs that the teen was now thinking properly about the question he'd been posed. "Uh… I was going to take the bus…?" he offered nervously. He wasn't going to tell Gibbs on how he was actually planning to walk there, or how he'd turned down multiple offers from Tony on being dropped off already (if Tony dropped him off, he knew for a fact that he'd at least stalk the two of them a little on their coffee date).

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at the teen's apparent uncertainty. Despite the fact that he trusted Andrew to be able to go out on his own… he wasn't sure that he wanted him to be out with no idea on how to get where he needed to be. That wouldn't be good parenting on anyone's part, foster parent or not.

Closing the newspaper he had been reading, Gibbs stood from the couch and slipped his glasses off his nose, tucking them onto his shirt. "I'll drop you off."

Andrew started a little at that. "Oh no, you don't need to—"

Gibbs shot him a look, shutting him up. "I'm dropping you off," he repeated, making it sound more like an order than a suggestion. Andrew nodded at that, hurrying off to collect his coat before Gibbs could say anything else. As the teen did so, Gibbs moved to stand at the bottom of the stairs. "Jessica," he called up, waiting for a few moments for her response.

A few seconds later, the small redheaded girl appeared at the top of the staircase, clutching a book to her chest and her eyes wide. "Yes, Gibbs…?"

Gibbs offered the girl a small smile. "How about we go for a drive?" he asked. "Let's get some fresh air."

The little girl seemed hesitant for a moment, not wanting to leave the comfort of the house (or, more specifically, her room) to go for a drive, but eventually she nodded, turning back to grab some of her sketchpads and a hoodie (even though it was nearly summer) to wear.

Turning back to Andrew, Gibbs noticed how his lips were pursed, and he was picking at his fingernails. The older man sighed.

"If you think I'm there to keep an eye on you, I'm not," he told him, making the boy look up sharply. "And if you're nervous about today, that'll also be fine. You'll be perfectly fine, alright?"

The boy took a deep breath, before nodding with a smile. "Yes, sir."

Gibbs knew that the use of the word "sir" right then was less because it was drilled into the teen out of politeness, and more to ease his nerves, so he gave the boy a smile before looking over at Jessica as she descended the stairs. "Right, shoes on and into the car, both of you! We don't want to make Andrew late, and we don't know what traffic's like."

* * *

Luckily for the three of them, despite it being an early Saturday afternoon there wasn't much traffic at all – it was as if everyone was taking that Saturday off shopping and saving it for the next few weeks. Of course, Gibbs thought this was great, because then he could get some grocery shopping done and give himself and Jessica something to do. Though, from the look of concentration on her face Gibbs saw as she attempted to sketch in a moving car, he doubted that she would want to actually do anything other than sit in the car and do some sketching, or maybe do some reading on that Amazon Kindle they kept in the car just in case.

Slowing down in front of one of the few coffee shops down the main street, Gibbs pulled up in front of one where he spotted only two people sitting at the tables outside – even though it was warm, it seemed as if people were either inside or headed to other places to eat. The two individuals were sat at a single table, one definitely female and the other male. As soon as the car pulled up, both individuals turned towards it. The female's face seemed to light up, and the male stood from his seat, pulling down his shirt.

Gibbs glanced back at Andrew and noticed the boy had paled slightly, and quickly deduced who the guy was.

"Want me to come out with ya?" Gibbs asked, fully prepared to actually step out of the car if that made Andrew more comfortable. He wasn't going to let the boy have a panic attack or pass out because his crush's brother was there to give him some sort of warning talk.

Andrew was silent for a few moments, seriously considering asking Gibbs to head out with him. He hadn't seen Alice's brother around for what was probably a good couple of years at least, and the last time he could remember them meeting he and Alice had just been starting middle school. Like their parents, he had gone to enlist, instead joining the army (this was literally the butt of all the family's inside jokes). The buzz cut and stubble made him appear more intimidating than Andrew once remembered him to be, only making his palms sweatier the longer he sat there, trying to build up the courage to get out of the car.

Eventually, after much internal debate, he decided that he wouldn't make much of a good impression (if at all) if he decided to go with Gibbs. So, taking a deep breath, he gave Gibbs a smile. "I'm good. I'll be fine."

Gibbs gave a single nod as he watched Andrew undo his seatbelt and move to climb out of the car. "You need me, you either signal or pass out – either will be fine."

Andrew scowled over at him. "I'm not going to pass out."

"Sure you aren't."

"Quit it, Gibbs!"

"You just have a good time." The older man smirked as he ruffled Andrew's hair, watching him leave the car and head over towards Alice.

Andrew barely heard Jessica call out a distracted, "See you later," before he'd shut the door and the car headed off, leaving him standing alone on the pavement with Alice and her brother at the table ahead of him. Steeling up his nerves, he made his way over to them, forcing a smile onto his face.

As soon as he reached the table, Alice stood to greet him, a smile on her face whilst her brother continued to watch him, unnerving him.

"Hi," she greeted him with a smile, hesitating for a moment before hugging him. Andrew was startled for a moment, meeting her brother's eye for a moment, before hugging her back.

"Hey," he greeted as she pulled away, before looking over to her older brother. He held out his hand in greeting. "Brandon."

The young man smiled, taking Andrew's hand in a firm handshake. "Andrew. Good to see you've at least still got your manners."

Alice glared at Brandon as Andrew's face flushed red. The older male only laughed at their reactions.

"Hey, hey! I'm just kidding." He nudged Andrew playfully before leaning over to give Alice a soft kiss on the forehead. "Just take care of my sister, will you Andy? We kind of need her back in time for dinner."

"Got it." Andrew nodded once and grinned, though it faltered when the intensity of the glare on Alice's face increased.

"Just leave," she snapped, which only made Brandon laugh as he walked off, sending the duo a wave as he rounded the corner.

Once the two were alone, they continued to stand awkwardly for a few moments before Andrew cleared his throat and spoke.

"You, um, look cute."

He wasn't kidding. In the moments they had been stood there staring at each other awkwardly, he'd taken the time to actually look at her outfit. Her hair curled lightly, with her makeup a faint pink to match her pink blouse and dark jeans with dark, plain ballet pumps. The fact that she still managed to look cute in Andrew's eyes whilst wearing a simple outfit astounded him, honestly, and put his simple hoodie with plain t-shirt and jeans to shame.

Alice's faint blush only worked to make her look cuter, and his own blush deepened.

"Your ponytail suits you," she replied, which only made him scoff.

"Gibbs wants to chop it off."

"No, really? Why?"

"He says he could use it to sweep the—wait, you agree with him, don't you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

She rolled her eyes at him before turning to head into the café. "You want an iced tea or something?"

His jaw dropped as he watched her head inside, before he scrambled to follow her into the small, cosy building. "Hey! You didn't answer my question! Alice!"

* * *

Walking slowly along the street, Andrew smiled over at Alice as they walked, the straw to his iced tea sat between his lips. Alice had already finished her drink and was snacking on a blueberry muffin she'd bought at the café, whereas Andrew had already finished his baked treat (a triple chocolate muffin which he'd got through in minutes) and had slowly gone through his iced tea, before buying another for on-the-road.

Noticing his smile, Alice raised an eyebrow at him, a piece of muffin partway to her mouth. "What?" she asked, her lips quirking up into a slight smile.

He simply shrugged. "Nothing much."

"That still implies that there's something." When he blushed a little, she laughed. "Okay, come on, spill."

"It's nothing, really!" he insisted, taking a sip of his drink and turning to look ahead. Realising that she was staring at him, now, he gave her a side glance. "What?"

"You're cute when you're awkward, you know that?"

His face flushed red at that.

She laughed at his reaction, popping another bite-sized chunk into her mouth. "What? It's true!"

"Why'd you have to put it like that?" he whined, his face still bright red, though he was smiling now. "You're embarrassing me."

She shrugged as she nudged him playfully, laughing when he nudged her right back. "I just say it as it is, Parkson," she teased, before trailing off. Something appeared to catch Alice's attention and she turned to look towards it, which directed Andrew's attention.

A movie theatre.

"Want to go catch a film?" he suggested with a slight grin. She returned the grin with her own smile, before reaching out and grabbing his arm, tugging him towards the cinema.

"Come on, then!"

Minutes later, the two of them were stood in front of a board showing the list of films available to watch. Andrew pursed his lips as his eyes scanned through the available films:  _Brave_ ,  _Madagascar 3_ ,  _Snow White and the Huntsman_ …

"What tickles your fancy?" Andrew asked, glancing over at Alice to see her scanning the board herself.

"I don't know… that  _Abraham Lincoln_  film looks good…"

"I thought you'd want something where you won't have nightmares?"

"You mean where  _you_  won't have nightmares?" When she noticed his glare, she winced. "Too soon?"

"Too soon."

As Alice opened her mouth to speak again, she heard a pair of familiar voices off to the side, and she tensed.

"Uh… Andy…?" Glancing over at him, she noticed that he'd tensed as well, and was looking over towards the entrance to the theatre.

The entrance that two very familiar special agents happened to be walking through.

"Hide!" Andrew hissed, grabbing Alice's arm and pulling her round to the other side of the board so that they could hide behind it. The two of them stayed silent for a few moments, before Andrew decided to poke his head around to get a view of what was going on.

Tony and Ziva were stood in front of a listings board not too far from where Andrew and Alice were hiding, their backs to the pair as they tried to decide on what film to watch. Which would have seemed normal, except for the fact that Andrew didn't know the two were that close – he'd never seen Tony hanging out with McGee outside work, so what made Ziva so special?

"Do you think they're on a date?" Alice asked quietly as she poked her own head around to get a look at what was going on.

Andrew shrugged. "I don't know. I never knew they were dating or anything." He paused to think. "Maybe they're just watching a movie as friends?"

"Yeah, likely story."

"What, guys and girls can't be friends?"

"I mean, I'd think they were only friends if they weren't standing so close to each other."

Andrew glanced up at Alice, raising an eyebrow and then realising he and Alice were in pretty close proximity. Blushing, he turned back to focus on Tony and Ziva, trying to listen in on their conversation.

"Anything in particular you want to watch?"

Ziva raised an eyebrow at Tony. "I thought you were going to teach me the basics of American culture with a strong film?" When he opened his mouth to argue, she added, "I am quoting you and not just making the claim myself."

"These are all American films – I was just wondering what kind you wanted to start off on," Tony argued. "We could go DreamWorks or Disney?" he suggested, gesturing to  _Brave_  and  _Madagascar 3_.

"I have experienced Disney many times in my childhood," Ziva commented, folding her arms. "That would be cute, but maybe not at the movies."

"Or some horror sci-fi with Prometheus?"

"I would like for you to  _not_  wet yourself, Tony."

"How about some good American history with a modern twist: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter?" he asked, ignoring the blatant insult she'd thrown his way like it was nothing new.

"That movie sounds ridiculous. Vampires do not exist. And  _do not_ ," she said quickly, before he could make any remarks, "say that  _Twilight_  is a real love story. Vampires are not real." She turned and moved closer to the board to get a better look. "Perhaps if we had waited a few more days, we could have seen Magic Mike?"

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Ziva David seeing a movie about strippers?"

She smirked slightly. "Perhaps I could have used it to give you some pointers," she commented off-handedly.

"That implies that I'll ever strip for you."

At the raised eyebrow she gave him, he smirked.

Andrew gagged. "That was way more than I ever needed to know," he hissed.

Alice could only nod her agreement.

"Perhaps Snow White and the Huntsman?" Ziva finally suggested. "It has Chris Hemsworth in it, and I would very much like to give him a try."

"On screen, or...?" Tony asked, his question trailing off.

Ziva merely smirked at him as she sauntered off to buy their tickets. "You ask that as if you are jealous, Tony."

He scoffed, following after her as he pulled his wallet out to try and pay for the tickets before she could. "What, me? Never!"

The two behind the board waited for the two agents to disappear from view, and once they were completely sure that two had moved off and out of view, Andrew turned back to Alice. "Okay, so we know what film we need to avoid—"

"You mean, what film we need to watch?" Alice corrected, grinning as she stood up straighter and straightened her blouse out by brushing it down. "Come on, we can tail them!"

He stared at her for a few moments before he finally decided to speak. "What for?" he asked her slowly, a frown on his face.

"Don't you want to find out what they'll be doing in the theatre?"

His expression turned incredulous. "After eavesdropping on  _that_  conversation? I'd rather not."

"Oh, come on, Andy. Stop being a wuss." Alice moved forwards slowly to see if Tony and Ziva were still at the ticket desk, before tugging Andrew to buy tickets for the same movie, the boy whining the entire time. "If you shut up, you get to pick snacks and I'll pay."

That kept Andrew quiet, until: "I thought guys were meant to pay for first dates?"

"Then you're doing a sucky job. Now shut up."

* * *

Walking into the theatre, the two weren't surprised to find it almost packed – though the film had been released weeks ago, most of the kids their age had only just started their summer vacation and were free to watch what they wanted. Plus, more recent reviews were saying that the film was actually good.

Then again, if it had Chris Hemsworth in it, it was bound to be a  _good looking_  movie – at least, that was what Alice had said as they headed into the theatre with their popcorn and sodas. Andrew hadn't hesitated to throw a small handful of popcorn in her face.

Looking around the darkened theatre, Andrew's brows furrowed. "I can't see them…" he whispered to Alice.

The blonde, on the other hand, was focused on a spot in the middle. "Hey, there's a pair of seats there. Maybe if we sit down first we can look after."

"Sit first? Wouldn't we want to find them?"

"Yeah, walk around a theatre with popcorn and sodas. Because that doesn't look stupid at all."

"Oh, shut up."

It took them a couple of minutes to reach the seats, considering they were right in the middle of a row, and Andrew almost dropped his popcorn multiple times as he edged his way past the various patrons in their seats. Once they'd reached their seats, Andrew let out a sigh as he sat down, tucking his soda into its holder and leaning back into the plush seating. "Okay, now look?" he asked Alice lowly.

Before Alice could reply, the already fairly dark screening room turned even darker.

"I guess not," Alice whispered in return. Nudging Andrew slightly, she smiled, though she knew that he wouldn't be able to see it in the dark. "Maybe we can just enjoy the movie instead."

Andrew smiled slightly, leaning towards Alice so that their shoulders were touching. "I guess we can."

Andrew swore he could see Alice's bright smile as she shifted slightly closer.

* * *

Andrew couldn't remember the point in the movie at which he'd slid his arm over and around Alice's shoulders, but he definitely remembered the feeling of her head tucked against his shoulder throughout the rest of the movie, up to when they actually started holding hands nearer to the end of the movie.

In fact, as they left the theatre, they were still holding hands, laughing at some joke Andrew had made as they headed out to the exit.

"I liked that film," Alice commented with a wide smile. "It was a nice twist on  _Snow White_ , I think."

Andrew raised his eyebrows at her. "What, nothing about Hemsworth?" he asked.

Alice shrugged. "He was cute. Maybe too old for me, though."

Andrew burst out laughing at that, though the laughter stopped abruptly when he heard a voice behind them.

"We're glad you enjoyed the movie – we did too."

The two teens froze, before turning slowly to face the two agents standing behind them, both of whom had smirks plastered on their faces. When the agents' eyes directed down to their intertwined fingers, the two quickly pulled their hands apart, blushes on their faces.

"So, you  _did_  follow us into that movie," Ziva pointed out with a grin, folding her arms as she watched the teens' reactions with interest.

Tony scoffed. "Of course they did, curious little things."

"Wait, you knew we were following you?" Alice asked, her eyes wide.

Andrew narrowed his eyes at them for a few moments before it clicked. "Of course they did. They're federal agents." He gave them a deadpan expression. "Gibbs sent you."

"Are you stating that or asking?" Tony asked.

"You know."

"We have to watch out for you both," Ziva said softly as she looked between the two teens. Seeing how they still appeared disgruntled, she sighed. "Imagine if something had happened in there. What if we had not been there to watch out for you?"

"Was Gibbs afraid of us seeing a film that we weren't allowed to, or that we'd get hurt by someone else?" Alice asked, frowning.

"Both, and more," Ziva responded before Tony could. She sent Andrew a pointed look as she said, "After all, not all of us are completely comfortable with dark spaces cramped with many strangers."

Andrew tensed at that, crossing his arms. "…Okay, but," he argued after a few moments of silence, "we were fine, weren't we?"

Tony smirked. "Honestly, Gibbs should've been more worried about you two messing around with each  _other_. My little man, pulling off moves!"

Both teens' faces turned a bright shade of red.

Ziva stepped harshly on Tony's foot before smiling at the two teens. "Ignore him. He is a fool."

"A loveable, special—"

"A  _fool_ , Tony." Focusing on the teens again, she continued. "Anyway, we have completed our job, and you are both safe, so Tony and I will both be heading off. You two will stay safe, correct?"

Both teens nodded, still too embarrassed to speak.

And with that, Ziva grabbed a whining Tony's arm and began to tug him out through the movie theatre main exit. Just as the two agents reached the door, something suddenly popped to Andrew's mind.

"Hey, Tony!" he called out, causing both agents to stop. "How did you know that we were coming here? And seeing a movie?"

Tony and Ziva shared a look briefly, before Tony called back, "We tailed you." The two agents scampered out of the building before Andrew could lose his temper with them.

Andrew's jaw dropped at that revelation, but before he could get angry at them Alice tugged on his arm.

"Let's just head home," she suggested, offering him a small smile to try and calm him down. "We can walk together back to the coffee shop and get picked up from there?"

Andrew seemed to contemplate this quietly, before nodding in agreement. He smiled as Alice began to tug him towards the exit, leading the pair out onto the street to begin their walk back to the coffee shop they'd met at earlier that day.

* * *

The walk the two took back to the coffee shop was much longer than the walk from the coffee shop to the movies, with the pair often dawdling and pausing during their walk to look at something they hadn't seen before, or just because they got distracted chatting and didn't realise that they had stopped walking until someone bumped into them. By the time they reached the coffee shop, the number of customers had dwindled significantly, with the waiters mostly cleaning tables instead of serving people their drinks. Two familiar cars sat outside the café, waiting for the teens: one of which belonged to Gibbs, the other belonged to Alice's mom, and the two could clearly see Brandon sitting in the front passenger seat next to her.

Andrew took a deep breath as they slowed, reaching the coffee shop. "I guess this is where the date ends," he said, a hint of sadness in his tone.

Alice gave him a slightly sad smile. "Yeah, I guess."

He took a deep breath, before giving her a bright smile to try and brighten the mood. "I had fun, though. A lot of fun."

The sad smile on Alice's face brightened. "So did I, Andy. I'm glad we did this."

"Same here." He squeezed her hand lightly, and she pulled him into a tight hug. He returned the hug just as tightly, and as they pulled away he placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. "We should do this again."

She nodded, blushing faintly and pushing some stray hair behind her ear. "We should."

The two stood there in silence for a few moments, before the sound of someone clearing their throat startled them out of the silence. Andrew looked over Alice's shoulder to see Brandon stood there, leaning on the open door of her mom's car, a single eyebrow raised.

"I think your brother wants to go," he whispered loudly to Alice, and she looked over her shoulder to see her brother there, looking expectant.

"Huh, I guess you're right," she responded, before turning back to Andrew. She remained standing there for a few more moments, a conflicted expression crossing her features the whole time. Andrew's brows furrowed.

"Alice? What's—" He was cut off by a sudden pressing of lips against his. Soft, gentle, and brief, but it was enough to stun him into silence with wide eyes, a shocked expression on his face once Alice pulled away.

Her face was beet red as she pulled away and started walking backwards towards her mom's car, a small smile on her face. "See you again soon, Andy," she said with a small wave, before she turned and ran over to the car, ignoring the smirk on her brother's face as he watched her climb into the backseat of the car. Andrew hadn't even realised that she'd left until someone else called out to him, and he realised there was only one car waiting in front of the coffee shop.

"Hey! Andrew! Quit acting all gobsmacked and lovestruck and get in the car!"

The teen visibly jumped at the call, and he stared at Gibbs with wide eyes before practically stumbling over to the front passenger seat of the car and climbing in, slamming the door shut once he was sat. It took him a few more seconds to realise that he needed to put his seatbelt on, though it took Gibbs reminding him more than once to actually do so.

As the car drove off, Andrew slowly placed his fingers to his lips, still stunned by the kiss. Gibbs glanced over from where he'd been focusing on the road and smirked.

"First kiss?"

Andrew managed a numb nod.

"Good kiss?"

Andrew blushed brightly, but grinned, making Gibbs chuckle.

"Maybe next time you'll initiate?"

Now Andrew was flustered, and he opened and shut his mouth a few times before he finally answered the chuckling Gibbs. "Oh, shut up."


	2. An Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A couple of weeks after the previous story, set closer to the timeline of _Rider's Return_ , Andrew decides to take matters into his own hands when Gibbs doesn't let him go out with his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter originally written: December 2011  
> Rewrite completed: January 2019

_Subject: Parkson, Andrew_

_Date: (5th) July 2012_

_Location: Virginia, U.S._

Andrew and Jessica were practically silent as they sat on chairs in front of Gibbs' desk, staring down at their feet. At that moment they should have been sat at home, doing whatever they felt like as long as they didn't disturb the neighbours. The only reason why they were actually there was because  _they_  had decided to go out and get in trouble by themselves. After all, the two of them never came into the office on a weekend.

It was just a shame that now, Gibbs couldn't quite trust them in the house alone.

Nor could he trust his agents to make sure that his kids stayed in the house as he had told them to.

Walking into the bullpen on the search for his Major Crime Response Team, Vance was surprised to see the kids sitting there alone, facing Gibbs desk and not saying a word. He hadn't interacted with them much, if at all, but from the few times his kids had met them they'd seemed to enjoy their presence.

"Good afternoon, you two," he greeted as he walked into the bullpen. The two kids jumped visibly at the sound of his voice, turning to face him with wide eyes. The way in which they turned towards him was enough to tell him two things: one, he wasn't the one they expected; and two, they were in huge trouble.

Good Lord, they were in trouble with  _Gibbs_.

"What did you do?" the director asked as he moved to half-sit on Gibbs' desk. When all he received were guilty looks from the kids, he sighed. "I know you two did something. Now tell me why you two are sitting in my office building with guilty looks on your faces."

The two shared a look, before Andrew reluctantly opened his mouth to explain.

* * *

Andrew sighed as he sat at his desk, elbow leaning on it and chin in his hand. His half-completed homework sat off to the side, a chewed-on pen sitting on top of it. It wasn't as if he was in the mood to complete it anytime soon, but it being there on the table was enough to convince both himself and Gibbs that he was getting something done.

He didn't even need to be doing the homework anyway. School wasn't back in session for a good couple of weeks at least, so he had time to finish it off another day. Instead, he could chill for a while and do whatever he felt like, as long as he didn't do anything stupid that would get him into trouble. Not that he did that (often).

There was just the one small issue of not being allowed to go out – not to meet Alice, not to meet Jon and Terry, not even to meet Peter. Because for some reason he had to stay in the house and watch over it whilst Gibbs took his little sister to the dentist.

As if the house couldn't take care of itself, or hadn't done so for years before he and Jessica had arrived.

This was honestly ridiculous to him.

The teen was startled right out of his moody reverie by his phone vibrating violently on his bedside table, where he'd left it so as to not get distracted whilst he was studying. Of course, that did a whole lot of good when he wasn't studying and was now looking for a distraction to get him away from his homework. Pushing himself across the room on his wheelie desk chair, he slowed to a stop beside his phone and picked it up, quickly unlocking it to see what messages he had.

He wasn't surprised to see that he had a ton from Alice, but he was certainly surprised to see that he had a couple from Peter and Derek and – shockingly enough – Tony. Ignoring the messages from his friends, he went straight to the one from the senior field agent.

_[text]: I hear you're stuck behind closed doors._

Andrew scoffed, rolling his eyes a little at that. Trust Tony to try and make a joke out of his situation. He was acting as if Gibbs had put him through this before and he'd come out of it yelling that it was no big deal.

He quickly typed a response to the message.

_[text to: Tony]: It's pure torture._

A few moments later, his phone buzzed in reply.

_[text]: You live?! Better tell your friends. They all think you died of boredom in your room._

_[text to: Tony]: I'm actually so close to that it's unbearable._

_[text]: Damn. Hope you live to see tomorrow._

Andrew chuckled as he began to reply to his friends' texts, informing them all of his not so great position: stuck inside all day with nothing to do except do homework and maybe get ahead reading that book they'd have for Literature when the new school year started. The incredulous responses of, "good luck, you're going to die of boredom" he got from them were  _very_  reassuring.

It was after he'd sent of the last of his texts to his friends telling them about how he would get them back the next time he saw them that he noticed he had another text from Tony, and he frowned slightly. He hadn't even replied to the man, and he'd sent him another text? What for?

Opening the text to see what it was about, his eyes widened.

_[text]: If you want freedom, I've got a free 20 minutes to get you out._

Andrew's mouth went dry. Half an hour to get him out? Oh good Lord he couldn't be talking about…

_[text to: Tony]: What, out of Gibbs' place?_

_[text]: That's 18 minutes now._

He had to make a split-second decision, and he had to make it now, or he would never get out of Gibbs' place. Because Tony needed the time to get down there and actually get Andrew out, before taking him to wherever Andrew wanted to go and then getting back to the office. Without Gibbs knowing what was going on.

This was going to be a piece of cake.

_[text]: 17 minutes._

_[text to: Tony]: Okay, okay, I accept. Get me out._

Not a minute later, there was the sound of something hitting Andrew's window. His eyes widened as he looked over at the window sharply, and he watched it curiously to see what would happen next. He was startled when the window was hit again, though this time he saw it was by a small rock. Getting up, he strode over to the window and opened it, only to duck quickly when a projectile came flying at his head. He scowled down at the offending thrower.

"Hey!"

Tony winced from his position down in the yard. "Sorry!" he called up, dropping the rocks already in his hands. "Well, you coming then?"

Andrew stared at him for a few moments, before grinning and pulling away from the window and shutting it. He looked around his room briefly, before grabbing his phone and a key for the house and racing out of the room. As he reached the stairs he took them down two or three at a time, grabbing his shoes and pulling them on hurriedly on his way out of the door and slamming it shut behind him.

He was met with a grinning Tony as the door shut behind him.

"You ready to be free, my young padawan?" the agent asked with a grin. Andrew only responded with a snigger, nudging him playfully as he headed towards Tony's car.

"I was ready from the moment I read your text." The teen opened the car door and began to sit down, looking over his shoulder at Tony. "Are we going now or what?"

* * *

"Okay, so, now that you're with your little friends, what are you going to do?" Tony asked as he spoke to Andrew through the open window of his car. The two had established that Tony had about five minutes before Gibbs got suspicious and it got more difficult for him to explain his disappearance.

Andrew shrugged as he glanced over his shoulder at his group. All of them were stood there, chatting and laughing with each other. Outside a convenience store not far from the main mall, the group would've seemed suspicious just for hanging out there if they hadn't been escorted by a federal agent. As it was, the agent didn't have his badge on show for everyone to see, so they looked a little suspicious anyway.

"We'll probably go into an arcade, or find a film to watch, or something," Andrew suggested with a shrug.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "You got cash for that?"

Andrew pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. "I got my weekly allowance."

Tony sighed, before shifting awkwardly in his seat and pulling out his own wallet and rifling through it for a few moments. He pulled out two twenty dollar notes and held them out to Andrew. "Think of this as your really late birthday present. Don't spend it all. Just… keep yourself entertained, and don't tell Gibbs. Otherwise, I'll be worse than fired – I'll be dead."

Andrew nodded quickly as he took the cash from Tony's hand, his eyes comically wide. "Wow, forty dollars! Thanks!"

"Don't mention it. Ever. Especially in front of Gibbs." He slipped his wallet back into his pocket and settled himself more comfortably in the driver's seat. "Now, go be free and have fun, and don't get yourself into any sort of stupid trouble. And  _please_ , for the love of God, if you go to see a film, don't try to sneak into one you can't see like Derek did last week. Listen to Kate and Alice."

Andrew simply nodded as he stepped back from Tony's car, giving him a little wave as he sped off to the office. Once the car had disappeared around the corner, he turned back towards his friends, hands in his pockets and a wide grin on his face. "So, who's ready for some fun?"

Jon and Terry glanced at each other, before grinning mischievously. "Oh, we were  _born_  ready."

Kate rolled her eyes at them. "Oh, here we go," she muttered.

"We could just go watch a movie?" Peter suggested with a bright smile, a hopeful look on his face. When no one responded to it, his face fell a little, and he sighed. "Or we could do something fun…"

That was what got responses from the others, and even Derek perked up a little, though his face remained ridiculously impassive. Multiple ideas began shooting around, everyone yelling out what they wanted to do, before Andrew slowly raised his hand. Once everyone had gone quiet, he smiled.

"How about laser tag?" he suggested, looking between the others. "Then we can go see a movie afterwards, right? Since we originally agreed to doing that, like, weeks ago."

The others appeared to consider this for a few moments, before general murmurs of agreement flitted across the group. Not everyone seemed impressed with the plan (namely the part about seeing the movie) but it was concluded that they were going along with it anyway, whether everyone liked it or not.

It didn't take the group of friends long to reach the mall, and it took even less time to find the entertainment area within the enormous building. Built mainly for parents who needed their children entertained as they shopped, the mall was equipped with a bowling alley, a small roller rink, an arcade, and (of course) a laser tag arena. In fact, in Andrew's opinion, the only thing that could have improved the mall further was a movie theatre, but considering there was one just a few blocks down, it wouldn't have been all that useful (Kate cleverly pointed out that there wouldn't be much revenue since it would be smaller, only supporting Andrew's point that the theatre would be pointless in the mall).

Weaving through the crowds, the group eventually reached the front desk for the laser tag arena, simultaneously appointing Andrew as their leader and pushing him towards the cashier.

The young man looked up with a bored expression on his face. "Good afternoon and welcome to Super Tag. What can we do for you today?"

Andrew thought it was pretty ridiculous that they asked that question, but he answered it anyway. "Two games for eight people." The teen leaned on the desk. "How much?"

"That'll be fifteen dollars each."

"Fifteen dollars?!" Jon popped up from behind Andrew, giving the man at the cashier an incredulous look. "Fifteen damn dollars for two games of laser tag?! What the hell?!"

"I can only afford one," Kate whispered loudly, looking down at the cash she held in her hands.

Ashley (Andrew sure hoped she'd decided on Ashley today) and Alice were making faces at each other, whilst Peter rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Sharing a glance with Derek, the two males sighed. Honestly, half the time Andrew felt like  _he_  was the mature one.

"Okay, make that one game," Andrew amended, turning back to the cashier. The bored guy at the desk's eyebrows rose, but he did as he was told.

"Eight dollars each."

"You get a discount when you play two games?" Peter asked, his eyes wide.

"You guys sure you don't wanna go for two?" Andrew asked the others, looking around at the group.

"I kinda need to eat," Alice pointed out, holding up what little cash she had on her.

"Come on, you know I'd pay for your food."

"Would you pay for me too?" Terry asked, looking excited.

A deadpan expression appeared on Andrew's face. "No."

"One game," Derek told the guy, ignoring everyone else. "We're trying to kill time before our movie."

The guy nodded as he began to total up the payments. "That's sixty-four dollars all together."

Andrew leaned on the desk as everyone began to get their cash out. "Can we pay separately?" he asked.

The man nodded.

As the first individual, Peter, moved forward to start paying, Andrew decided to try and strike up a conversation with the man.

"So... you work here a lot...?" he attempted, which only earned his a raised eyebrow from the guy. The teen decided to try a different approach.

"You seen any good movies recently?"

The man paused at that, before answering as Derek stepped forward to pay with Kate. "There's the new Spiderman movie out."

"The Amazing Spiderman?" Derek's eyebrows rose. "My cousin watched that. He said it was alright."

"It's a different guy," the man explained, "but it's still good. Basically a Spiderman reboot. Either that, or you wait about two and a half weeks for The Dark Knight Rises."

Andrew's eyes met Derek's, and the two shared a small smile.

_Bingo._

* * *

"I cannot believe you actually did that to me!"

Jon and Terry were cackling as the group headed towards the exit of the mall, whilst Alice looked near furious as she glared at her boyfriend.

Andrew rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "What? It was a game..."

"You sniped me out!  _Twice_!"

"You weren't on my team!"

"You  _sniped_ me, Andy!"

"I'm more surprised at how many snipes he got on SEAL boy," Ashley pointed out with a grin, nudging Derek in the side. "You're the only one he sniped more than Alice."

"I snipe everyone I see as a threat," Andrew argued.

"Then why didn't you snipe me or Jon?" Terry asked, his laughter stopping and a frown forming on his face.

Andrew smirked at him. "Didn't you hear what I just said?"

It took a few seconds, but an incredulous look formed on Jon's face. "We're lesser threats than  _Peter_?!"

"You guys aren't threats at all."

"What the hell, Andy?!"

The group's laughter and bickering continued as they left the mall and headed for the movie theatre, up until they'd reached the building and passed through the glass double doors to head inside. For a few moments they stood in the lobby, chattering away, until Alice decided to ask the all-important question.

"So, what are we watching?"

"We could watch Ice Age," Kate suggested, earning an incredulous look from Ashley.

"We're not  _five_ , Kate."

"It's a good movie series!"

The two continued to bicker lightly as Andrew approached the movie list hung up on the wall. His eyes lingered on one movie in particular.

"So we gonna watch it?"

Andrew didn't even have to look to know it was Derek standing beside him, looking at the exact same name on the movie list as he was. The shorter male grinned.

"I'm more than up for it. The real question is where our  _girlfriends_  will be up for it."

"Why are you questioning that?"

"Dude, your girl wants to watch  _Ice Age_."

Derek shrugged. "She'll like Spiderman."

Andrew rolled his eyes as he turned to face the others, who were still bickering about a film to watch. "Hey, what about The Amazing Spiderman?" he asked, watching for their reaction. From the way they stopped and turned to face him, seemingly thinking on his suggestion, Andrew was assuming it was a good suggestion.

"What rating is it?" Alice asked, her brows furrowing as she scrutinised Andrew in that way that told him she would know if he was up to anything.

"A PG-13. No biggie."

Kate's brows furrowed. "Are you sure we're allowed to see that?"

Andrew sent her an incredulous look. "We're  _fifteen_."

"Let's just get the tickets and see this movie, we've ben standing here for  _ages_ ," Peter whined.

"Does the movie sound good enough for you, your highness?" Jon asked Alice sarcastically, though he winced when he found himself on the receiving end of a glare.

"Call me that again, and I will make sure that I cause so much pain, you'll be crying for your aunt," she threatened, before turning to Andrew with a smile. "Sounds like a good movie to me. Let's get tickets and snacks."

Andrew simply smirked at the twins as he walked off with Alice, hand-in-hand, towards the ticket counter. Derek and Kate were next to follow, and soon enough it was only the twins left standing in the lobby.

"Did she... did she really just threaten me and smile right after...?" Jon whispered. Terry patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"You've just gotta deal with it, dude. That's one thing you've just gotta deal with."

* * *

Andrew should've known that he'd be in trouble as soon as he emerged from that movie theatre. He should've known that Gibbs would somehow find out that he'd snuck out of his room to go to the movies.

Tony was such a snitch sometimes.

Of course, the teen didn't realise he was in so much trouble until he spotted a familiar car parked right out the front of the theatre.

And a familiar grey-haired man standing right beside it, his eyes focused on Andrew.

Any chatter amongst the teens died down, Jon's joke dying on his lips, when they all noticed Gibbs standing there.

"Oh, crap," Terry muttered, whilst Peter shifted to stand behind Derek so that he was out of Gibbs' line of sight.

The agent's eyes were focused on Andrew, so much so that the teen was already walking towards the car when Gibbs opened the backseat passenger door.

"Bye, Andy," Alice called out, giving him a little wave when he turned to look at her over his shoulder. He returned the wave as he sat in the car, though he didn't get a chance to say anything before the door was shut on him. A few moments later, Gibbs was in the driver's seat, starting the car and driving off.

The car was silent for the first few minutes, before Andrew decided to break the silence.

"So... how was the dentist...?"

"You  _left the house_?" Gibbs asked lowly, completely changing the subject and terrifying Andrew. The teen hadn't heard Gibbs use that tone of voice unless he was angry with the agents, or just after coming out of an interrogation. He'd never heard it used on  _him_.

The teen wisely decided to stay quiet as Gibbs drove on, though soon enough Andrew got confused. They weren't even heading in the direction of the house.

"We're not going home...?"

Gibbs looked at him in the rear view mirror, and that was when Andrew realised he really was in trouble – Gibbs was  _angry_ , and he never usually got angry with him. "I thought you didn't want to stay in the house?" the foster father mocked, and Andrew gulped.

Gibbs was going to make his punishment at the Navy Yard, which definitely meant that Tony was in trouble as well.

Brilliant.

* * *

Vance shook his head as Andrew finished explaining what he'd done, sighing. Granted, he knew his daughter would have done the same thing given the chance, but his daughter also knew what was a bad time to test her father's patience, and escaping from the house with a field agent when on a dentist trip was  _definitely_ a bad time.

Especially since he couldn't see Agent DiNozzo anywhere.

"You know you shouldn't have done that, right?" the Director asked, a single eyebrow raised, when all he got in response was Andrew sinking further down into his seat, he decided to try a different approach.

"Andrew, what do you think would've happened when Gibbs got home and found you were nowhere in sight? With not even a note or a call to say where you were?" Because they all knew Gibbs didn't text.

The teen paused in his self-wallowing to think about that. Gibbs would've been angry, yes, but... the boy he was taking care of had disappeared. Suddenly. Considering what happened last time Andrew had disappeared, things began to make sense.

"He would've been worried," the teen replied, though he just got more upset when Director Vance nodded. "But we wouldn't have had this problem if he'd just let me go in the first place!" he argued. "I didn't  _ask_  to stay at home! I asked to go out with friends!"

"Gibbs can't protect you when you're somewhere he has no control over," Vance pointed out. "He wasn't on call or nearby. If something went wrong, Agent DiNozzo wouldn't have been the one who had to come for you – Gibbs would. And considering he was at the dentist with your little sister, there was no way the man could leave to attend to you if something went wrong. Did you consider that?"

Andrew stayed quiet for a few moments, and Vance took that as a "no".

"Andrew, I want you to think hard about where your priorities lie, and then I want you to apologise to your father. What you did was wrong – you terrified him for no reason other than the fact that you wanted to have fun, when I'm pretty sure you've still got that gaming system McGee set up for you a little while back. You could've tried that online gaming thing instead of going out. Or asked to invite friends round." Standing, Vance sent the teen one last look before turning to head to his office.

Before he left the bullpen, though, he turned back. "Wait, Jessica. What did you do to get in trouble?"

The little girl twiddled her thumbs and stared down at her feet for a few moments, before answering, "I bit the dentist for making fun of my hair."

* * *

It turned out, Gibbs didn't punish Andrew at the Navy Yard. He punished Tony with promises of extra mounds of paperwork once their case had finished and a lot of yelling about how he had no right to take his foster son out when he'd been told he couldn't leave, sure, but absolutely nothing had been said to Andrew at all.

Not until they got home.

"What were you  _thinking_?" Gibbs rounded on the teen as soon as their shoes had been taken off and Jessica had headed upstairs, waiting for Gibbs to have a word with her. "You just thought you could  _waltz_  out of the house,  _when I told you not to_ , and do what you wanted?" When Andrew didn't answer, Gibbs continued. "Something,  _anything_ , could have happened to you, Andrew!  _Anything_! I can't protect you when I don't know where you are because you do stupid things like this!"

"I didn't get hurt," Andrew mumbled just loudly enough for Gibbs to hear, angering the man even further.

"Oh really? What if you  _had_? What if there had been a mugging? Or a shootout? Or, God-forbid, a  _bomb_?!"

That last question (or rather,  _explosion_ , pun intended) alone was enough to make Andrew realise exactly how worried Gibbs was.  _A bomb._  He was still shaken up after what happened a couple of months back, and Andrew couldn't blame him.

After hearing the news cast from school, only to be told to sit down when he was trying to explain that he  _needed to call his dad and find out if he was okay_ , Andrew had been majorly shaken up. And then hearing that Ducky was in hospital for a heart attack had made it even worse. That day, Andrew had spent pretty much the whole afternoon in the school councillor's office because he couldn't focus in class and kept yelling at the teachers for not letting him contact his dad, only to stay at Alice's for the week until the case was solved and Gibbs felt comfortable enough bringing them home. They'd all been rightly shaken up by the bombing, and the resulting aftermath.

Only, Gibbs was the only one who hadn't dealt with it properly. Not yet.

"I'm okay, dad," Andrew reassured gently, finally looking Gibbs in the eye and offering him a gentle, reassuring smile. "I didn't get bombed, or shot at, or mugged. I'm alive, and I'm safe. It's okay. I'm okay."

Gibbs just stood there, staring at Andrew for a few moments, before pulling him into a tight hug, resting his chin on his head.

"I was so worried," Gibbs whispered, before kissing Andrew on the head. "You know that anything could have happened?"

"The bomb wasn't your fault, dad. Everyone's alive. We're all safe. And I'm safe, okay? Don't worry."

The two remained standing there in silence, before Gibbs spoke.

"You're grounded."

Andrew didn't even bother arguing. "Okay."

It was a few moments more before Gibbs let go of the boy, sighing and patting the teen's head, before he turned to head upstairs. Andrew had a grin on his face as he followed.

"So... Jess bit the dentist, but? At least he knows her teeth are strong."

Gibbs had to let out a snort at that, smirking over at the teen, before shaking his head.


	3. The Therapy Debate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a heated discussion with his new friend, whilst both still in hospital, Andrew decides that it's about time Alex saw the joys of therapy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Completed: March 2019
> 
> A completely new idea! Inspired by _Dobby and Padfoot_ on ff.net: _"I'm exited to see Alex's reaction to seeing a physiologist. For some reason I feel like Alex and Andrew might have a group session. It would definitely be interesting if they did."_

_Subject: Parkson, Andrew; Rider, Alexander_

_Date: August 2012_

_Location: Virginia, U.S._

"You... want to join a group therapy class?"

Penny Bloomfield dealt with a lot. Crying children, screaming parents, angry siblings... all of that, she dealt with on a daily basis. And it had got to the point where she could handle it. She could calm down the crying children with a few soft words, reason with the screaming parents, even placate the angry siblings. Penny Bloomfield was good at her job, and she most definitely knew it.

The only time she was not so great at her job was when something came up out of the blue.

It had been happening more often since she'd started working with the Parkson children. The poor sweethearts were orphans, currently being fostered by a federal agent... meaning that they also had the tendency to be dramatic and sudden, not thinking things through before doing them and regretting them afterwards.

Jessica tended to be a lot better at controlling herself. Yes, she would randomly blurt out things, and more often than not she would come out with scathing comments that would be considered utterly unacceptable if they hadn't been said in such an innocent tone. Penny was beginning to feel that the girl did that on purpose.

Andrew, on the other hand, was volatile. His behaviour was somewhat unpredictable, and tended to depend on his mood. He was terrible at listening to instructions in general, and was almost always on edge, ready to jump as soon as she gave word that he could leave. She could tell that even though he was trying, and even though he wanted to get better, he hated being there. He hated the room, he hated what they did... she really hoped he didn't hate her, though considering their current predicament she highly doubted it.

At that precise moment in time, Penelope Bloomfield was sat at her desk in her office, no appointments planned for the next half hour at least. She'd wanted to rest and give her brain a break.

Those federal agents always burst into places, and they'd set a bad example to Andrew.

As soon as he'd burst in, he strode up to her desk and leaned on it, as if he were about to demand something of her. Which he did, to be fair.

At her question, Andrew rolled his eyes. "No, I want to move into an Amish community."

"What have we discussed about your sarcasm?"

"I'm too inappropriate with it. Sorry."

Penny sighed, her lips pursed as she thought. Andrew had good intentions – the boy was genuinely sweet at heart – but he really didn't know how to go about things.

"You do realise that a group therapy session isn't just something you can just walk in and join?" the therapist pointed out.

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "You can for some of them. I looked it up."

"Which ones? The war veterans with PTSD?" When he stayed silent, she frowned. "Andrew, you and your friend are  _not_  war veterans with PTSD. You are abuse sufferers with PTSD. And walk in sessions are considerably more difficult to find for that group – especially for children, who are far more likely to have one-to-one sessions."

The teen visibly deflated. "Oh..."

Penny's heart sank. She knew Andrew was trying. From what she'd heard from Agent Gibbs, as well as the clear rejection she'd received from the boy (Alex, she thought his name was) when they'd first met, it was obvious that Andrew was trying to get him to at least agree to try therapy before he left the state. And, to be fair, she had to admit that it was a very good idea to get him to at least try therapy before going home and committing – having a taste of things like this often shook off misconceptions.

Sighing, she reached for her notebook, opening it and beginning to scribble down some thoughts. "You really want to have a group therapy session?" she asked, glancing up at Andrew.

The boy was watching her intently. "Or just some way for Alex to see therapy and try it out, yeah."

She hummed and nodded, continuing to scribble down her idea. When she was done, she set her pen down and reached for her desk phone. "How many do you want in the session?"

Andrew shrugged. "Not many. Alex doesn't like people."

Penny's eyes shifted from the phone to Andrew.

The teen put his hands up in surrender. "That wasn't a jab at him this time. That was God's honest truth. I swear."

The woman sighed, before putting down the phone. "I'm assuming he wouldn't be comfortable in a room filled with people he doesn't know, then?"

Andrew pursed his lips at that, seemingly thinking about it. "Huh… I guess he wouldn't…" When Penny sighed and looked as if she was about to shoot any possible ideas he had down, he quickly spoke up. "But I know some people who would do a mock group therapy session, though! That would be a good idea, right? Instead of strangers?"

It was worth noting that Penny never usually approved of Andrew's ideas – they were usually spontaneous, wacky, and would generally get her into trouble with social services. Part of her truly believed he was setting her up to get fired. But this one…? She put her palm to her chin in thought, considering the idea.

It would most definitely help Alex, without compromising the personal data of other children she worked alongside, and if the people Andrew was inviting were people Alex may know or have met in passing before…

"That could work."

Enabling Andrew Parkson was never usually a good idea, but she supposed she could let it happen just this once.

* * *

Alex looked up when he heard the door open.

Honestly, by now, he was used to people just walking in. Granted, it was common courtesy to knock before entering a room, but for some reason the NCIS agents didn't seem to follow that (unless the person was McGee, who followed those unspoken roles of politeness to a tee).

It also seemed as if Andrew had followed their example.

Alex simply sighed, closing his book and putting it to the side. "What is it now?"

Andrew stopped short, the door slowly shutting behind him. "Wow, nice to see you too."

"You didn't even knock."

"There's no sign on the door telling me to."

"It's common courtesy."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine, I'll do it next time."

"You won't even do it next time."

"Why are you even—you know what, I didn't come in here to argue about technicalities." Andrew ignored Alex's incredulous exclamation of "technicalities?!" and headed straight for the bed, sitting on the edge of it without giving the other boy a warning. "You up for a talk today?"

Alex opened his mouth to respond, before hesitating and frowning. Andrew never asked before they started to chat, which meant he wanted something…

"You're not going to talk me into seeing a psychologist again, are you…?" Alex asked hesitantly, even though he already knew the answer. Andrew was adamant that he needed to see and speak to someone about his issues, and whilst Gibbs didn't outwardly say it, he appeared to also agree with Andrew. And if Gibbs saw sense in something, it was bound to be sensible.

Andrew picked up Alex's crutches, holding them towards the other boy. "Not exactly…" At the quizzical look on Alex's face, Andrew just sighed. "Just come on. You'll see when we get there, alright?"

"You want me… to  _walk_  somewhere…?" Alex asked slowly, before looking down at his foot pointedly. His casted foot.

"Don't be an ass, Alex. You have crutches." Andrew pushed himself off the bed, leaning the crutches against it where Alex could reach. "We're not going far, anyway. You're not going to collapse on the way."

"Clearly you haven't seen me try to use crutches, then." Alex began to shuffle towards the edge of the bed, carefully swinging his legs over and grabbing the crutches. Making sure he was holding onto them comfortably, he slowly pushed himself off the edge of the bed and onto the ground, wincing a little as he began to support himself.

Andrew watched him carefully. "You good?"

It took a few moments, but eventually Alex stood more upright, and nodded. "I'm good."

Andrew grinned. "Great. Let's go."

* * *

"Where are we even going?" Alex slowly moved beside Andrew, trying not to stumble with his crutches.

Andrew came to a stop beside a door. "Just here," he announced with a slight smile.

Alex read the sign on the door.  _Conference room._  "Why are we entering a hospital conference room?" he asked slowly.

"Doctor Martins said we could use it. She thought it was a good idea." Andrew smiled at Alex. "She was actually pretty chill about it. She's a real nice doctor."

Alex's eyebrows rose as Andrew opened the door to the room, stepping inside and holding the door open for Alex. He had a good idea of what Doctor Martins had agreed to, but his idea wasn't confirmed until he entered the room and saw a woman he'd only met once sitting at the table. A woman he'd only met once, but he knew exactly what she did. Alex's face went stony almost immediately.

"You're giving me a therapy session?" he asked quietly, almost glaring at Andrew. The other teen simply shut the door.

"No."

Alex turned quickly to see a blonde girl sat at the table, just beside the therapist (Penny Bloomfield, he believed her name was). She gave a small smile at the shock that appeared on Alex's face. "Nice to see you again, Alex."

Alex's brows furrowed. "Andrew, why's your girlfriend here?" he asked.

"Because you're here to watch  _our_  therapy session," Andrew responded as he moved to sit down, opposite Penny and Alice. "We thought you'd want a taste of what an actual therapy session is like, so we're having a group therapy session."

"A mini one," Alice clarified, "just so that you have an idea of what's going on, and so you realise it's not actually that bad."

Alex scoffed. "I don't think it's  _that bad_ ," he argued.

"Don't lie, Alex." Alex looked up to see that the door had opened again, and Sabina was now walking into the room, a smirk on her face when she realised Alex had shock on his. "What?"

"You're seeing a therapist?"

"It appears so."

" _Why_?"

"Because my idiot adoptive brother won't." The female immediately moved to sit on the far side of Andrew, leaving Alex to sit on the side closest to the door. The fair-haired male looked a little apprehensive at the group of people in the room, and jumped a little when Andrew leaned over and nudged him.

"Loosen up," Andrew whispered. "She's not gonna kill you."

"Are you sure?" Alex whispered in return.

Before Andrew could whisper back a snarky response, Ms Bloomfield spoke.

"So, why don't we start on our session?" she suggested, her eyes focused on Andrew. "How about we start with you, Andrew? How have you been?"

Andrew looked a little surprised to be put on the spot like that, but shrugged a little. "I've been okay, I guess."

Penny nodded, giving him an encouraging smile. "Would you like to expand on that?"

He paused, giving a deep breath, before continuing to speak. "I've been okay food-wise. It's kind of hard having to restrict myself in terms of what I eat, particularly because I've only recently got back to eating what I want, but I'm trying really hard."

Penny nodded as she noted this down on her notebook. "That'd good. At least you're working on it."

Andrew nodded with a smile.

"And how are you sleeping? You mentioned this was a problem last time and wanted it to be something we worked on." When she noted he'd frozen, she put her pen down. "Would you rather talk about this next time?"

Andrew shook his head quickly, though Alex noted he'd gone a little pale. "No! I don't mind… uh…" He took a deep breath. "I… haven't been sleeping that great. I… I'm struggling to sleep for longer than about three hours at a time…"

Penny nodded, waiting to see if Andrew would say anything further. When he didn't, she prompted, "Is there any particular reason for this, or is it more random?"

Andrew bit his lip, staring down at the table. "…The nightmares started again."

Alex's head suddenly snapped towards Andrew at that, having been focused on Penny and everything she was saying. He hadn't known that Andrew had nightmares in the first place – he'd known about the boy's past experiences, but to find that it gave him nightmares too…

Penny nodded. "Same as last time?"

"A… a mix…" He sighed. "A mix of old and new…" He bit his lip nervously. "Can we, uh… talk about this later."

Penny nodded with a smile. "Of course. Just tell me when you're ready. It can be a phone call if you want."

"Wait," Alex spoke up, his brows furrowed. "So… he has nightmares… but you're not going to find out what they are?"

"My primary job is to listen," Penny explained, turning to focus on Alex. "My secondary job is to help and advise. In no part of my job am I supposed to force or squeeze the truth out of you, even when I want to. I'm here to listen to you and let you open up when you're ready to. Forcing you to open up is counter-intuitive and you won't necessarily reveal what you really want to. That first step of trust is needed before anything else."

Alex blinked, taking it all in, before nodding. "Okay. Okay, that makes sense. I guess."

Penny raised a single eyebrow. "Did you think I would squeeze it out of him?" At the guilty look on Alex's face, she sighed. "I mean, apart from the fact that Andrew is a child, he is also very vulnerable and has a will of his own. Forcing him would not work – it would only make him more reluctant to open up to not just me, but the people around him."

"And as Andrew's girlfriend and someone who also sees a therapist," Alice added, turning Alex's attention to her, "I can safely say that Andrew speaking to his therapist does actually make him more open to talking with me. Not completely open, but definitely more open."

Sabina watched Alex carefully, noting the clear discomfort on his face. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Alex still wasn't completely comfortable with the idea of sharing his secrets with someone he didn't know – particularly because of what his past entailed. And that made sense to Sabina.

But it also made sense to start opening up to someone about it.

"You can't keep everything bottled up forever, Alex," she said softly, her lips quirking up into an awkward half-smile when he jumped and focused on her. "The longer you keep it bottled up, the harder it is to let out, and the more damage you're doing to yourself." She leaned forward to look him in the eye. "Don't keep it all to yourself. Let us help you. Let us find someone who  _can_."

Alex stared at her for a few moments, before down at his hands on the table. "I think I want to go back to my room," he mumbled quietly, before pushing himself up and beginning to hobble towards the door, ignoring the concerned looks he received from those sat at the table.

* * *

Andrew knocked on the door gently, knowing that it wasn't exactly to barge in like he usually did. He didn't know what state Alex was in exactly, but he didn't know that it wasn't okay for him to be alone right then. Even if he'd cut himself off.

A quiet "come in" prompted Andrew to push the door open and enter the room, noting how Alex didn't say anything as the door was closed gently and the darker-haired teen moved to sit beside Alex's bed. The two were quiet for a few moments, sitting in silence, before Alex decided to speak up.

"You have nightmares?"

Andrew glanced up at him momentarily, before back down at his hands. "Well… yeah, I guess I do." He hesitated for a moment. "Honestly, though, what we went through was pretty—"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

A quizzical look appeared on Andrew's face as he looked back up at Alex, though it didn't take him long to answer. "Friends aren't therapists, Alex. There are real professionals out there who can help with things like that."

Alex pursed his lips, before picking up his book from his beside table and opening it. "If you're going to lecture me about seeing a therapist—"

"I'm not," Andrew cut in quickly, before taking a deep breath. "I'm not going to lecture you, or try to convince you to see one. If you don't want to see one, that's your choice. Even though we really think you need to see one."

Alex's eyes were glued to his book as Andrew spoke, and he calmly turned the page. "Spilling your guts out and making yourself vulnerable doesn't seem like something I want to do."

"No, but being able to sleep without having nightmares is." When Alex's hands tightened on the book in his hands, Andrew sighed. "What, you think I wouldn't notice? You look tired, you're kinda crabby, and you seem to want to know a lot about my nightmares."

"It's genuine curiosity."

"Somehow, I don't believe that." Andrew sighed, pulling out his phone and checking the time. "Look… I promised Jessica I'd take her out for some sort of lunch thing, so I'm gonna make this quick. I know you really don't want to see one, and I understand that, but please… just think on it, okay? If not for yourself, then at least for me and Sabina. Because we care about you." He pushed himself to his feet and began to head towards the door. "I'll see you later."

Alex just focused intently on his book as Andrew left the room, not even bothering to look up at him or wish him farewell. As soon as the door shut, though, he looked up, his lower lip worrying between his teeth.

He understood why Andrew was doing this. Other than the fact that the other boy seemed to be genuinely concerned for his mental well-being, Andrew seemed to genuinely understand where Alex was coming from. Yeah, he knew a bit about Alex's past, but he understood why Alex did and said the things he did. He understood what Alex was going through, what sorts of things were on Alex's mind. He was going through the same things.

The only thing was, despite his initial reluctance, Andrew was willing to take the help.

Was Alex?

* * *

Penny sighed as she headed out of the conference room, her notebook clutched to her chest and her pen hooked behind her ear. Whilst the session she and Andrew had planned hadn't been as successful as she'd hoped in terms of Alex… well, it had certainly helped in terms of Andrew and Alice themselves, both of whom had more things to work on since this recent case, apparently. (It appeared as if having your boyfriend kidnapped brought back vivid memories and fear for his life, especially when there's nothing you can do about it.)

She came to a stop when she heard the rhythmic clack of something hitting the ground, and her eyes widened when she realised it was actually the sound of Alex on his crutches approaching her – something she most definitely hadn't expected.

"Alex?"

The boy stopped, his face tinting pink with what was most probably embarrassment. "Uh… hi."

Penny blinked a good few times, not exactly sure why the boy was there. "Is… is something the matter?" she asked him slowly.

He quickly shook his head, though his next words completely contradicted what he was doing. "Uh yeah, um…" He bit his lip, his hands squeezing his crutches nervously, before he put on a confident expression. "I… I want to try."

Penny's confused blinking didn't stop. "You… what?" she asked slowly, not sure she heard him right (or really understood what he meant, for that matter).

"I want to try. Like, have a go." His face flushed pink, and the confident expression quickly gave way to a slightly panicked one as he backtracked to try and explain himself. "But it's only a try! And if I don't like it, it's not happening again."

Penny watched him carefully for a few moments, trying to gauge exactly what had caused a change in behaviour, before a soft smile broke out onto her features. "That's fine with me, Alex." She gestured to the conference room door. "Shall we have a chat in here, then?"

Alex seemed to hesitate, as if he was thinking his decision through again, before nodding and beginning to hobble towards the door for the room. Penny pushed the door open and held it for Alex, allowing him to pass through before entering the room herself, shutting the door behind her with a small smile on her face. It was a good thing she hadn't told anyone she was done with the room.

Neither of the two noticed an individual hidden further down the corridor, their blue eyes peeking out and watching the whole exchange occur. It wasn't something anyone would expect, but somehow Sabina had known that Andrew would manage to change Alex's mind. She didn't know how, but he seemed to have a way with words around Alex that no one else did.

Eyes focused on the pair, Sabina smiled as she watched Alex hobble into the room from around the corner. Maybe there was hope for him after all.


	4. A BirthDay Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set about a month after the events of _Rider's Return_ , Abby comes up with a plan to get Jessica to open up and enjoy herself a bit more, and it involves a certain little girl's upcoming birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter originally written: December 2011 (assumed)  
> Rewrite completed: April 2019

_Subject: Parkson, Jessica_

_Date: September/October 2012_

_Location: Virginia, U.S._

Jessica didn't often spend time down in the lab. More often than not, right after school she was up in the bullpen, sitting at either Gibbs' or Ziva's desk as she got work done. But since the bombing earlier that year, Gibbs had been reluctant to let Jessica anywhere near the bullpen when he knew he wouldn't be there. Andrew said he was worried about an event like that occurring when they were there, but Jessica didn't think that could happen. Not when it had already happened once, because then they'd know how to catch the next one.

So she was sat in the office at the back of Abby's lab, whilst the woman did some work for one of the other NCIS teams.

"Hey, Jessie?"

The girl looked up. Only Abby called her that, and whilst it didn't bother her that much, it was weird to hear someone call her that way. It kind of reminded her of the doll from Toy Story, to be honest, and that was her favourite character in the franchise.

Abby gave her a wide smile. "What'cha doing?"

Jessica had to give a smile at that. Only Abby would be just as childish towards her as she was supposed to be to everyone else. "Homework," she responded, simply and quietly.

Abby had to smile softly at that. Ever since the new school year started, Jessica had been getting more and more comfortable in her own skin. She spoke out more, both in class and with the team, and was far less shy towards people she had met in passing but didn't know properly.

The fact that she held a conversation with Vance about her art was more than enough to say she was improving. (At least, it was in Tony's opinion.)

Shifting closer to the girl, Abby decided to take a peek over her shoulder at the piece of homework she was doing, and nearly squealed with excitement.

It was  _science_  homework.

Jessica's eyes shifted so that she glanced up at the woman. She didn't need to speak – the questioning expression on her face was enough to let Abby know that she had a question about exactly what she was doing.

"Can I help you with your science homework?"

Jessica blinked a few times. Abby was well-versed in Jessica expressions – she knew what she was really saying.

"But it's just a bit paperwork! It's not even for Gibbs! I can get it done later! This looks fun!"

Another blink.

Abby pouted. "Please, Jessie? It'll be fun!"

The little girl paused for a few moments, before giving a sigh; and that was all Abby needed to grab a chair and sit down beside the third grader, getting a better look at what the homework was about. The words  _organism_  and  _environment_  popped out at her, and she quickly deduced that the homework was Biology-based – not totally her area of expertise, but she  _loved_  science regardless, and Jessica was technically at the fun science learning age. Once she got to high school, it was all about learning for your future, and that wasn't always fun.

Jessica looked up after a few moments of drawing lines and matching up diagrams. "I thought you said you were going to help me?" she asked, sounding (in that moment) very much like her older brother on one of his more sarcastic days.

Abby just smiled at her. "You don't look like you need help, so I'm content to just watch."

Jessica frowned. "You're using me."

"I'm bored! And what you're doing is interesting! So I'm staying."

The little girl huffed, but Abby didn't miss the brief smile that appeared on her face before she wiped it clear of any positive emotion in response to Abby's behaviour. She knew that half the time, Jessica behaved like an adult. Probably because of everything she'd been through, but acting like an adult had to make her feel in control of a situation. Abby believed it was about time people convinced her to act like the child she was.

Which gave her another idea.

"What are you doing for your birthday?" she asked, trying not to seem sudden but clearly failing from the look of surprise that appeared on Jessica's face. The look of surprise that quickly gave way to an expression of indifference as she turned back to her work.

"Why do you ask?"

Abby tried not to look surprised at the rapid change in emotions on Jessica's face. She knew that this wasn't the girl's first birthday without her parents (that had been last year, whilst she was still in the foster system), but celebrating a birthday without your parents at such a young age still had to be hard for her.

Still, it wasn't as if she was  _without_  a parent.

"Hasn't Gibbs asked you yet?" Abby asked, a single eyebrow raised. She knew the man was busy – he was almost  _always_  busy – but he always had time for the kids. He always  _made_  time for the kids. He was so incredibly soft when it came to the kids, that—

"No." Jessica continued to scribble away, oblivious to the internal monologue Abby had going.

Abby blinked. Gibbs hadn't even  _asked_  her what she wanted to do for her birthday? That was…  _strange_ …

Resisting the urge to get up and storm straight up to the bullpen and get in Gibbs' face, Abby put on a smile. "Let's get back to work, then."

She was definitely going to talk to Gibbs about this.

* * *

"You  _forgot_?"

Andrew looked up from where he was reading through a history book from his school's library, making notes for his essay. He hadn't really wanted to study in the bullpen, but Alice had had to go home early, Peter had robotics club, and Derek had wrestling. Morgan (thank goodness she'd finally decided on a name) and Kate were generally glued at the hip and spent most of the time studying in the food court at the nearby mall, which was far too distracting for the teen, leaving the twins.

He never got anything productive done around the twins.

Which was why he was left with the bullpen – without Tony and Ziva around, it was a lot quieter and easier to study, and McGee generally provided peaceful,  _helpful_  conversation. Plus, with Jessica down in Abby's lab for the afternoon, it meant that he didn't have to worry about her.

Or so he thought.

The teen watched Gibbs (who had  _literally_  just walked in from a meeting with Vance and had to get at least  _some_ paperwork done before the end of the day) sigh and take off his glasses, pushing his paperwork to the side before focusing on Abby. "I forgot what?"

Abby huffed. "Jessie's  _birthday_!" As Gibbs continued to stare, she elaborated. "It's in  _two weeks_!"

"I know," Gibbs responded simply. The answer didn't seem to placate Abby, so he sighed. "She's having a birthday party that weekend."

Abby's irritation immediately dissipated. "What?"

"A birthday party. Doris is throwing her one."

"Wait, wait,  _what_?  _Doris_  is throwing her one?"

Now Gibbs was confused. Abby looked incredulous – or, almost angry. He thought she'd wanted Jessica to have a birthday party? "Is something wrong, Abby?"

Abby spluttered, seemingly unable to form words, before she screeched, "Yes!" The screech got the attention of not only McGee, but the rest of the bullpen floor, causing multiple heads to turn in their direction. Abby ignored these in favour of focusing intently on Gibbs, glaring at him.

"You can't let someone else's  _mom_  throw your own  _child_  a birthday party!" she exclaimed, almost angrily. "If Vance told you that was acceptable, he's  _wrong_!"

"Doris is just organising the thing—"

"Where are you even having the party? At a house?"

"At home."

Abby's face screwed up. "That tiny little place? Filled with screaming girls? I don't think that's a good idea."

Gibbs sent her a glare – not as harsh as one he'd send a member of the team, but enough to tell her that she had just leaped into insult territory, and he would shoot her down if she made any more mistakes. "Any better ideas, then? Since you seem to have a huge problem with what I'm doing for my child for her birthday?"

Before Abby could say anything else or dig herself into a deeper hole than she was already in, Andrew decided to step in. "Jessie's always had normal birthday parties," he pointed out. "And she's only ever had them when mom was around. If she was away, dad took us out to dinner. And if they were both away… we did nothing. So a birthday party is the norm."

"Does she  _like_  the norm?" Abby challenged, turning to face Andrew.

"Well, she  _is_  pretty normal…"

McGee snorted. "A kid as smart as her? Andrew, she's not normal. Not at all. She may enjoy the norm—"

"Doesn't she want something _more_  than a simple birthday party?" Abby butted in, frowning and ignoring McGee's irritated glare as she turned to face Andrew fully. "She's got to want something  _more_  than just a birthday party!"

Andrew had to think hard about that one. From what he could remember, Jessica had never really asked for much. She always seemed happy with what she was given… and she never complained. She'd been the 'easy' child, from what he remembered their parents saying. There had to be something in particular the girl had liked…

"Theme parks," Andrew muttered suddenly, looking over at Gibbs and Abby. "Jessie's always liked theme parks. We went to Disney World once when we were really young, and she had a blast." He smiled slightly. "Maybe we could do something with that?"

Abby stared for a few moments, before a huge grin slowly spread on her face, and she began to bounce in excitement. "That's it! That's perfect!" She span mid-bounce to face Gibbs, who was watching her with amusement. "Let's do it! Let's do that! Let's throw her a theme park birthday party!" She slammed her hands down on Gibbs' desk, leaning forward to look him in the eye. "Call Doris! We have an epic party to throw!"

Gibbs blinked, before letting out a breathy laugh. "Sometimes I wonder if it's really the kids who are more of a handful…"

* * *

It was the light filtering through the window that woke Jessica up on that cool fall morning, rousing her from a dull dream involving her friend Shelly and her brand new Barbie dolls (Jessica herself had never had any fascination for those horrid things – the last time she'd got one as a gift, she'd ripped the head off and chased Andrew around the house with it; her mother had used the excuse of "oh, she's only young, she won't understand", but she really hated that thing). The girl had been more than glad to wake up.

Though, she was very surprised to find that there wasn't the smell of pancakes wafting under her door and into her room.

Ever since the new school year had started, Gibbs had made it a point to make pancakes every Saturday morning, whilst Abby turned up with whatever toppings she deemed suitable that day. Sometimes the other members of the team turned up and joined them in their Saturday morning meal, which made for more interesting conversations at the breakfast table (or rather, in the lounge, because when there were that many people there generally wasn't enough space at the table for them all). Saturday mornings were always entertaining.

This morning seemed silent.

Pushing herself out of bed, the girl padded to her bedroom door before pushing it open, peeking out into the corridor. It was still quiet – not even Andrew's bedroom door was open, which was really weird. He was usually up before her, and he  _always_  left his bedroom door open when he was up.

What was going on?

Stepping out into the corridor more fully, Jessica looked around more fully before heading towards the stairs, descending them with confusion clear on her features. Her confusion reached its peak when she reached the downstairs corridor and she still couldn't hear anyone milling about the house.

"Hello?" she called out, and nearly screamed at the response she got.

Abby leapt out into the lounge doorway, a huge smile on her face. "You're up! Perfect!" Her smile fell a little. "But… you're not ready."

Jessica gave herself a few moments to calm down, before she frowned. "Ready for… what?"

"For breakfast!" Abby gestured to the little girl's clothing. "You can't go out to breakfast dressed in…  _that_! Get some real clothes on! We're waiting!"

"What?" Before Jessica could ask who exactly Abby meant by 'we', the woman was shooing her upstairs to get changed.

"Make sure it's something cute! Like that outfit we made Gibbs buy for you! Wear that one!"

Jessica only ascended the stairs obediently, a frown still on her face. She didn't have a clue what Abby was up to… but she supposed she could go along with it.

* * *

What confused Jessica the most wasn't the fact that she was being made to dress up and leave the house on a Saturday morning – heck, when she used to go for swimming lessons, this used to be the norm – but more the fact that she had no idea  _why_  they were going out at that time on a Saturday morning. Abby said they were going out for breakfast, but Jessica felt it was more than that.

Especially when she found out that neither Andrew nor Gibbs was in the house, but Ziva had been keeping Abby company in the lounge and was now sat in the front passenger seat as Abby drove them to whatever destination she'd intended for them.

"Can't you just  _tell_  me where we're going?" the little girl demanded after what had been at least a good half an hour of driving in silence. Neither woman seemed intent on telling her where they were going of their own free will, so she decided pushing them was the next course of action.

The two women sent each other a glance, small smirks appearing on their faces, before they both faced forwards.

"Nope," they answered simultaneously, causing Jessica to grit her teeth in irritation.

"And why the hell not?" she snapped, causing Ziva to turn to look at her over her shoulder with a single raised eyebrow.

"First of all, language," Abby pointed out, unable to turn and glare at Jessica because she was driving. "Your brother is the worst influence  _ever_  and you shouldn't be following in his footsteps. And second of all, because it's a  _surprise_. We can't tell you about the surprise until it's time for you to see it."

"That's ridiculous."

"Yeah, well, it's happening." Abby paused for a moment to smile. "And you'll love it."

At Jessica's huff in response, Ziva spoke up, "Your temper is worse than Andrew's. Amusing, considering you are the one people believe to be the nicer of the two of you." The Israeli could only smile at Jessica's indignant response.

At least she was opening up.

It was about another three quarters of an hour before any semblance of them nearing their destination was felt in the car, and Jessica opened her eyes when she felt the vehicle turning and slowing down. Like they were entering a parking lot. The little girl frowned and leaned to look out of the window, getting a better look at where they were.

 _Rip's Country Inn_.

The girl's eyes widened at the sight of the building, the sign clear above the entrance to the building. Had it been any other restaurant, Jessica probably wouldn't have been fussed. They could go anywhere for breakfast nowadays.

But  _this_ place…

"Did Andy tell you about this place…?" He had to have. It was the only way they'd know about this place.

The place their dad used to take them for meals on their birthdays.

It was nowhere near home – in fact, it was at least an hour away – but there was something about the place that meant they'd always want to come back. It had always felt homely, with food that had Jessica begging for more, and the staff were always extra friendly whenever they saw their dad or found out it was one of their birthdays. The place felt like home in a restaurant.

Feeling the tears well up in her eyes, the girl rushed to scrub them away as Abby pulled into a parking spot.

"Are you alright, Jessica?" Ziva asked softly. The little girl only managed a nod, sniffling a little. The woman smiled. "Then shall we go? We do not want to keep the others waiting."

"The others…?" Jessica should have known that it wasn't just Ziva and Abby taking her out for breakfast (well… more like brunch now…), especially since the restaurant was likely Andrew's idea. Either way, she unclipped her seatbelt and climbed out of the car, waiting for the two adults before following them into the restaurant.

" _SURPRISE!_ "

Jessica jumped for what felt like the second time that day, her eyes wide as she took in the sight before her.

The entire rest of the team was in the restaurant, along with her brother, sat at a long table that ran down the middle of the room. But it wasn't just them. Friends and their parents were also seated at the table, huge smiles on their faces as her friends from school held up a banner that read, "Happy birthday, Jessie!" Granted, it wasn't her birthday for another two days, but the overwhelming sentiment behind the thing made tears well up in her eyes again.

This time, it was Andrew who rushed to her aide, kneeling before her with tissues in his hands, ready to catch the tears. "Hey, hey. It's all good, Jess. No need to get all sappy. It's your  _birthday_ , for crying out loud."

"Y-yeah, but…"

"We're all here to celebrate you. Don't give us tears for it."

Jessica let out a watery laugh at that, taking the tissues and wiping away the tears on her face. "That's something daddy would've said."

The girl didn't miss the sad smile her brother gave at that. "Yeah… yeah, it is…" Reaching over, he pulled her into a tight hug, squeezing her tightly for a few moments before letting go. "He would've done that too."

The little girl laughed. "Yeah…"

He smiled softly at her, before the smile morphed into a grin and he ruffled her hair playfully. "Alrighty, then. Let's go talk and eat. We've got a long day ahead of us, and I'm pretty sure that waitress remembers your usual order."

Jessica was about to ask what he meant by a long day ahead of them, when her eyes brightened at the words "usual order". "Blueberry pancakes?"

"Complete with bacon and syrup." Andrew laughed as his sister practically skipped past him to take her seat next to Gibbs, who hugged her tightly and planted a kiss atop her head. "As always, food's the fastest way to your heart."

* * *

A good conversation and a stack of blueberry pancakes later, Jessica felt satisfied. Maybe not complete, but satisfied. The meal had more than made up for everyone's absence in the house that morning, and she was about ready to call it a day if everyone was done.

Except, she kept remembering the little hint Andrew had given her earlier.

_We've got a long day ahead of us._

What did he mean by that?

She realised her question was a good deal closer to being answered when everyone's plates were being cleared away, and she was midway through a conversation about the middle school boys next door to Mira (she wasn't interested in them – they were far too old and rowdy for her liking – but Mira and Kathy sure were) when Gibbs called everyone to attention.

"Hi, everyone." Those two words alone were enough to silence the crowd, and he sent everyone a quick smile before continuing. "Now, those of you who know me know I'm not the speech kind of guy," he paused to let the brief burst of laughter die down, "but I just want to thank you all for coming along to Jessica's birthday party. I know this is different to what she usually has, but we thought we'd treat her for her tenth birthday. So, happy early birthday to you, Jessie."

Jessica smiled brightly at that, a feeling of warmth bubbling up inside her at Gibbs' rare use of her nickname.

"This would also be a good time to tell you that the party isn't over." Gibbs sent a quick glance Abby's way at the murmurs, before continuing as all the excited children were shushed by their parents. "Because we're making today special, and because it's not even afternoon yet, we thought we'd treat you all to a little fun not too far from here."

Jessica frowned, very confused, until she realised Gibbs had pulled something out of his pocket – a set of tickets.

A set of tickets for Six Flags.

The little girl tried very hard to hold in her scream of excitement, practically buzzing in her seat.  _They were going to Six Flags_. She'd  _always_  wanted to go to Six Flags. She'd been begging her parents for  _ages_  when they were around.

"We and your parents have made sure each one of you has a ticket to Six Flags." The man turned to Jessica with a smile on his face. "So you better enjoy your day."

The little girl grinned widely. "I sure will!" she exclaimed, her grin getting impossibly wider at the laughter that ensued.

As soon as all of their plates had been cleared away, and the bill had been paid for everyone's meal, the large group headed out of the family-themed restaurant to their cars, everyone getting ready to head to the theme park not too far from where they were. It was only when everyone was getting into their cars that Jessica realised just how packed the parking lot was. If she'd been focusing, she'd have been able to guess what was going on as soon as they'd turned in.

"Hey!"

The girl looked over to see Andrew grinning at her, giving her a wave as he got into a car with McGee, Gibbs and Tony.

"I'll see you there, alright?" he called over to her, giving her a thumbs up when she nodded in response.

Climbing into Abby's car, Jessica was practically bouncing in her seat with anticipation, excited for the day they had ahead of them. Ziva chuckled and shook her head at the girl's excitement – seeing such as expression on the girl's face was a first for the whole team, and it was refreshing to see something other than concern or indifference expressed on her features.

Luckily, she knew to sit back and buckle her seatbelt as Abby started the car.

"You ready for a day full of fun?" Abby called out, grinning widely.

Jessica's hands shot up into the air as she cheered, bubbling with excitement.

Despite the drive to the place being an agonising ten minutes, and everyone taking painfully long to find parking, getting into the theme park itself had to be the most stressful thing Jessica had endured in her nine (nearly ten) years of life on the planet called earth. She spent most of her time trying to expel her excitement by bouncing on the balls of her feet, hoping that getting rid of that excess energy would do her some good.

It did not.

It wasn't until they reached the front of the queue that she finally calmed down, the huge grin on her face the only thing giving away just how excited she was about getting into the theme park. Andrew had a cheeky grin on his face as he placed his hand on the top of her head, trying to stop her from bouncing.

"Guys, she's literally vibrating," he laughed, looking over at Tony and McGee – the two in charge of their tickets. Whilst Gibbs was a good (and intimidating) father figure, it didn't take much to realise that the tickets would fare far better in the hands of McGee, a younger guy who was probably more seasoned with theme parks and such, and Tony, a guy who could smell a scam from a mile away. The two men laughed as they went about trying to sort out Jessica's ticket (and FLASH Pass – she had a  _FLASH Pass_!), leaving Abby and Ziva to deal with the bundle of excitement that would be bouncing off the walls if she'd been in an enclosed space.

"Perhaps the pancakes were not a good idea," Ziva suggested, a smile on her face. "The sugar must be making her bugsy."

"Antsy," Andrew corrected, his hand still on top of the grinning Jessica's head. "And trust me – you'd know if it was sugar. This ain't it."

A few moments later, and the group were passing through the gates and into the theme park, Jessica's squeal of excitement announcing their arrival to the rest of the park. She looked up at Andrew with wide eyes, asking the question with words her mouth was too jittery to form.

The older brother laughed. "Alright, Jess, let's go wild!"

The excited whoop was the last thing the agents heard before the girl raced off, her older brother in tow. Tony chuckled as she watched the two, Ziva shaking her head slightly at the pair.

"You think we should follow them?" McGee asked, his expression betraying the lack of concern he felt at that moment in time.

Abby shrugged. "I think they'll be okay for now," she responded as they watched the rest of the kids in their party run off with their friends and parents, heading for whatever rides tickled their fancy. Looking down at the FLASH Pass in her hand, a grin grew on Abby's face.

"Race you to Batwing!" she exclaimed before running off in her platforms, leaving the others to race after her.

"Where even  _is_  that one?!"

* * *

Usually, Jessica wasn't a fan of Monday mornings. They were dreary and announced the start to another week of school. Not that she didn't like school, of course, but it was more of a hassle than she cared to admit.

Still, this Monday morning was a special one.

Because it was her birthday.

Bouncing down the stairs, she followed the scent of pancakes through the lounge into the kitchen, where she was greeted with stacks piled high on plates and Gibbs at the stove, cooking up more.

"Teeth before breakfast!" he chided before the girl could reach for one of the pancakes to snack on. "You know the rules."

She let out a long whine – something usually uncharacteristic of her at any time, let alone that time on a Monday – but she did as she was told, heading back out through the lounge to brush her teeth upstairs. As she passed through, she hesitated by the coffee table, a smile forming on her face at what she spotted there.

Amongst the various cards standing artistically on its surface (many from her friends and the team, one from that distant Aunt Eleanor, and one in cursive from Alex in San Francisco… Andrew must've told him), a single photo stood out, large and proud in its Gibbs-made frame.

The girl picked up the photo, taking a closer look.

It was a photo from the weekend, with all of her friends huddled around her and Andrew stood right behind her, a huge grin on his face. The team stood at the back of the photo with Gibbs, the group of them laughing at something Tony must've said. But the most precious part had to be Jessica, surrounded by people who cared about her, a huge grin on her face that hadn't been seen since her parents had passed.

Running her finger across the frame glass, the smile on her face widened. The party may have been temporary, but the memories would definitely last.

Setting the photo down, Jessica took a few steps back to get a full look at the display. She gave a happy sigh, before turning to head upstairs, her hands raised in victory. Her parents may not have been around, but there were definitely a lot of people who loved her who were. She didn't have to think hard before summing up her weekend in three words as she jumped up off the final step onto the landing:

"Best birthday ever!"


	5. A New Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally September, and the start of the new school year for Alex. Except, he's not too excited about what the year has in store for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Completed: April 2019
> 
> Another completely new idea! We're now moving on to Alex over in San Fransisco, and hopefully this should help with leading us into the storyline of Scorpia Returns. This is a completely new idea, since I'm only now deciding to have a look at Alex's side of the story between the two fics and really want to establish a bit more background to Alex's side of the universe. I hope you guys enjoy it!

_Subject: Rider, Alexander_

_Date: September 2012_

_Location: San Fransisco, C.A., U.S._

Alex nervously fiddled with the hem of his new jumper as he sat in the lounge, his eyes focused on the wooden floor in front of him. He knew that if his leg hadn't been in a cast, he would be pacing the room right then – that was how nervous he was at that moment.

Because today was his first day at school.

Granted, the school year had started a little while back, but apparently they'd needed to process all his data because he was an international student, and a delay in starting a new school year was (according to Liz) a great opportunity to heal up and get as much rest as possible after his eventful summer. That, coupled with the fact that it hurt to move for a while, meant that he was house-bound for at least two weeks, getting used to moving around on his crutches without help. He felt like he was getting there, but he still fumbled with things in his hands, and sometimes he tripped over his own crutches when he was distracted.

It was Liz's voice that startled him out of his anxious thoughts. "Alex, are you ready?" she asked from the entrance to lounge, leaning on the door frame.

The fair-haired teen looked up with a slightly nervous smile. "I guess..."

Liz sent him a reassuring smile as he pushed himself to his feet. "You're going to be fine, Alex. You have Sabina there with you, and I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends."

Despite knowing that Liz was just trying to cheer him up, Alex didn't feel cheered up at all. Starting this new school just made him wish for his old one again, with all of his old friends and that old life he had before MI6 had decided to mess with it all. He didn't want new friends with the different accent and the behaviours that made him feel like he was in some sort of Disney teen movie. He wanted Tom and James and his football team and maybe that cute girl from rowing club with the ironic name, Rowan. He didn't want a new life with new friends when he was struggling to even speak to his old friends again – Tom hadn't replied to his messages since he'd left the country, and James had purposefully left him on read (he knew it was purposeful because he knew James, and James was an arsehole), whilst that girl Rowan had blocked him on every platform they shared the moment she'd heard he was involved in that school shooting back at the beginning of the summer. He was practically alone. The only person from his past that he was connected with was Sabina, and even she'd been a connection only formed through his work with MI6. He had no one genuine around anymore.

Still, he put a smile on his face for the Pleasures and did as they suggested most of the time, trying not to let how much he hated being stuck in the house all day show on his features.

He didn't even have a therapist to rant at yet. He hadn't booked an appointment with the man Bloomfield had suggested and given the details for, mainly because he was still trying to cope with the very different lifestyle.

He hated it.

"I hope so," he responded as he slowly made his way towards the door, limping with his crutches. Eventually he reached her at the door, and Liz gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder before turning to lead him out of the house, to her car.

Despite the fact that the school was only a few blocks over, Alex's crutches meant that he would struggle to get there on his own. For his first day, Liz had agreed to drop him off so that she could help out with any paperwork that needed to be done. For the next few months, Edward was going to be dropping him off, to make sure he got there safely, and would be picking him up. After all, the school was on his way to the office, so it made sense.

Sabina was still learning how to drive, and she preferred to walk with her friends, so she always left before Edward left the house for work anyway, which meant that Alex would only see her at school during the day and not beforehand. That fact alone made Alex very nervous – unless he saw Sabina around, he had no friendly faces to greet him until after school, which made him alone in a completely new environment.

Without some sort of made up background to back him up. In case people asked.

Fantastic.

* * *

"Well, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Alexander."

It had taken all of five minutes to reach the school parking lot from the moment Liz had sparked the car, and the two were currently sat in the principal's office for Alex's initial meeting with the vice (the principal was in an important meeting, apparently). He was tall and fairly gangly for an older man, wearing a crisp grey suit with a black tie despite the still warm weather. A part of Alex had wanted to point out that the thinness and the suit reminded him very much of a man he used to have meetings with reluctantly, but he avoided that thought in favour of trying to listen to the man speak.

"I'm Vice Principal Allen, and I'd like to formally welcome you to Elmer E. Robinson High School, considering most of our conversations have been carried out over the phone."

Alex offered the man a polite smile. "Thank you very much, Sir."

The man smiled in return and gave Alex a nod. "It's always nice to meet a student whose first instinct is manners. If only the rest of the school could follow your lead..."

Alex suddenly felt awkward, trying not to shift in his seat. He didn't want anyone to follow his lead. The last person who'd done that... well...

"Anyway," the man got back on subject, pulling out a few papers from the desk beside him And Alex from the thoughts that were beginning to spiral, "we've managed to get all of your timetables ready. Because you applied for the school year so late, it took us some time to fit you into the classes you showed an interest towards, but you're on all the registers now, and we have a timetable ready for you." The man handed Alex a single sheet from the small pile, showing a week-long grid of lessons and locations for each of the periods of the day. Whilst the lessons made sense, the room locations made no sense.

Apparently the Vice Principal noticed the expression of his face, because next he knew Alex was being handed a map of the school. "It can be troubling getting around for the first few weeks, but soon enough you'll know this place like the back of your hand." The placed the rest of the papers down on the desk in front of him and leaned on it. "Now, regarding your injury..."

"I can climb and descend stairs easily," Alex explained. "I, uh... have a loft room. At home." He didn't want to explain how he only had the loft because it meant that no one walked past without intending to speak to him, which minimised foot traffic and allowed him to listen out for any disturbances. Or that the view from his bedroom window provided an ideal aerial view of the street and the houses a few blocks either way to that he could keep an eye out for any abnormalities. He really just wanted to ignore the fact that he was pretty paranoid when it came to his safety.

The man nodded. "Of course. That's brilliant." He cleared his throat. "You are, however, exempt from Phys. Ed., and any other activities involving excessive physicality, so you're welcome to either watch or spend your lessons in the library – whichever works best for you."

Though Alex was grateful for the consideration, he felt a little saddened by that. P.E. had always been one of his favourite lessons at school, and not for the first time he found himself feeling bitter about the whole fiasco in D.C. that summer. Yes, he had a new friend, but at the cost of his now broken leg. Was it worth it?

"And finally, for your first two weeks, you'll have a buddy to help you out with getting to lessons and such. There are a few students with the same timetable as you in your homeroom, so hopefully one of them will volunteer to help you out before I pick someone at random."

Alex winced internally at that. He knew what it was like to wait for a volunteer to help out the new kid. He'd done it once or twice, but usually no one wanted to volunteer. After all, who wanted to have some random kid following them everywhere? Tom had always said he'd had a heart for helping people.

Look where that had got him.

"Now, Mrs. Pleasure," the Vice Principal turned to Liz, who was sat beside Alex, "there are some last pieces of paperwork to go through with the school secretary regarding Alex, but other than that I think it would be wise for me to get Alex down to homeroom before classes start."

The woman nodded. "That sounds perfect."

"I'll show you to her office on our way down."

With that, the three of them moved to leave the room, Alex slightly slower because of his crutches. It didn't take them too long, even with Alex, to leave the room and head out into the corridor, and three doors down they dropped Liz off at the secretary's office before turning a corner and leading Alex down the main corridors of the school.

Alex knew they'd reached the main school corridors when the inspirational posters turned into lockers, with groups of fifteen to twenty interlaced between doors to classrooms. The hallway itself was fairly quiet, considering everyone was in their homeroom classes, save for one guy who was rushing to grab stuff out of his locker.

The Vice Principal cleared his throat. "Mr Rodriguez."

The individual tensed, before closing his locker and turning to face the man with a smile plastered onto his face. With his dark curly hair and tanned skin, it didn't take a genius to realise the guy was Latino.

"Mr Allen," the male greeted. "I'm really sorry, but I'm on my way to homeroom..."

"This is the third time you've been late this week, Mr Rodriguez, and it's only Wednesday," Allen pointed out with a frown. "Care to explain why that is?"

"My car wasn't starting. I needed a jump start."

Alex watched the whole scenario unfold with interest. He wasn't sure whether Vice Principal Allen believed this Rodriguez guy or not, but Alex could tell he was lying. Something about the look in his eyes told him there was something more to the issue that he refused to spill to anyone except those who mattered. A smart move.

Allen hesitated for a few moments, before eventually nodding. "Don't let this happen again, Rodriguez. Make an effort to be on time more often next week."

Rodriguez nodded. "Yes sir."

"Now get to homeroom."

The teen nodded, although not before locking eyes with Alex. Alex didn't know how, but he felt as if the boy knew that he knew he hadn't told the truth. And Alex also knew that this probably wouldn't be the last time they crossed paths – if his gut feeling was right.

Following the Vice Principal, the pair left Rodriguez to sort out his things and headed further down the corridor. About halfway down, they reached a door that Allen paused in front of, glancing at Alex momentarily before pushing the door open.

The door led to a rambunctious class of students, probably a good twenty to thirty of them, with only a handful actually sat down in seats and doing something quiet. The rest were out of their seats, either chatting or throwing things around the classroom, ranging from paper airplanes to footballs (the American type). As soon as the students spotted Vice Principal Allen walk through the door, however, they all rushed to their seats, everyone attempting to look innocent. Only the teacher didn't look that bothered, casually flipping through a sports magazine.

"Vice Principal Allen, to what do we owe this visit?" he asked as he flipped the page. Glancing up, he did a double take when he spotted Alex just behind him. "The new kid?"

Alex couldn't help but bristle slightly at that. He knew he probably hadn't been mentioned to the teacher, and still had to be introduced to the class, but he felt he was at least more than some "new kid". He at least deserved to have his name known, if that teacher even cared about him. Then again, from the way his class had been messing about, he doubted it.

It seemed as if Allen felt the same way. "It seems as if you've been ignoring the emails. Again."

"No, no, I've been paying attention." The teacher stood, putting down the magazine. "Come on in, Mr Pleasure."

Though the use of a different name to refer to him made him feel weird, Alex slowly made his way into the room, acutely aware of the clacking sound his crutches made against the wooden floors. He hadn't felt this self-conscious in a while, And he was very much used to making sure he wasn't noticed, so to stand in front of an entire class with his crutches was nerve-wracking. The teacher approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder as he turned to face the class.

"Guys, this is Alex Pleasure. New kid, starting afresh. Please be nice to him." He gestured to the crutches. "Now, as you can see, he's going to have a bit of trouble making his way around a new school for a while, so any volunteers to help him out for the next couple of weeks as he settles in?"

There was silence, and Alex very much recognised it. It was the silence of people who didn't want to help the new kid. And a new kid on crutches was the last thing anyone wanted to associate with.

He was quickly realising how out of place he was at this school.

And just when he didn't think it could get any worse, a weedy arm rose, belonging to an equally weedy boy sat right at the front of the class. It didn't take a genius to see that he was the least popular and least liked kid in the class, and the sniggers only made Alex feel worse.

_Just wait until they hear my accent_ , he thought sourly as he took the seat gestured to him next to the kid at the front of the class.

* * *

Alex learned a good few things about his helper once the Vice Principal had left the room. His name was Johnny, and was president of the programming society that was run by their IT teacher. He was a middle child, apparently, and was most definitely the least liked in their class, simply because he was weird and weedy and couldn't hold a normal conversation with anyone.

(Alex wanted to argue that that wasn't true, but he supposed he had to wait a couple of days to confirm that.)

Him being least liked also opened him up to bullying, though he was apparently hoping that since he was helping out the new kid, he wouldn't get bullied. Somehow Alex doubted that would be the case, but he didn't want to dash the boy's hopes too soon. He just hoped he wouldn't also be the subject of bullying.

For the first half of the day, everything seemed to be going reasonably well. Whilst he was pretty much stuck with Johnny, the others in his classes seemed pretty okay. He'd pretty much gained instant fame the moment people heard him speak, and he spent most of his literature class reading out Shakespeare in "the original speak", as his teacher put it. He thought it was ridiculously embarrassing.

His physics class had to be his favourite so far. His teacher had refused to accommodate to Johnny by moving the person next to him for Alex, so he'd been forced to sit next to a guy called Bradley. He vaguely remembered seeing his exact shade of bright red hair in his homeroom class, and he soon learnt that Bradley (he was only ever called Bradley, not Brad) had an older brother and an even older sister, and was from Florida, having only moved locally two years ago. Their relative newness to the area, combined with their shared love of math and mechanics, meant that Alex hit it off pretty quickly with the guy. He even hoped he'd made a friend in him – especially if it meant he sat in that same seat for the rest of the school year. It would make being in this school that much more bearable.

Things started to go downhill just as lunch break started, when everyone headed to their lockers to shove their books away before heading down to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. Unlike in many of those American teenage films, Sabina had told Alex that the food at EERHS was actually edible to the point of being nice, and that people generally bought their lunch instead of making and bringing in their own. That surprised Alex, considering the fairly poor quality of secondary school lunches at home, but he looked forward to at least trying it and having his own opinion.

He was headed down the corridor with Johnny, just heading to the other boy's locker, when he suddenly collided with Alex – hard – and caused him to crash into the lockers they were walking past. There was a collective hiss from passing students at the sound Alex made when his crutches hit the metal, and the fair-haired teen winced at the sudden jarring in his leg as he fell to the floor. Leaning against the lockers behind him, Alex hissed as he began to push himself to his feet (or rather,  _foot_  and  _cast_ ).

"Well, well, if it ain't the four-eyed loser."

Alex looked up to see a terrified-looking Johnny holding his books to his chest, standing before two boys. Both of them looked bigger and older, though one significantly more so than the other. The bigger one was blonde, and muscular to the point of probably qualifying for Olympic weightlifting, whereas the other was more on the chubby side with curly dark hair and a face so spotty that Alex wasn't sure whether they were spots or freckles – maybe they were both and he just couldn't differentiate between them. Either way, they were the types of kids Alex wanted to avoid.

And he'd met them on his first day.

"I'm a little hungry, loser," the dark haired one said in a mock-thoughtful voice. "And I need some money for lunch. So hand it over."

Johnny gulped, his eyes wide. Alex recalled him mentioning something earlier about how his mother had made him some sort of special lunch, and he suddenly understood why Johnny looked so terrified. Though, there was a chance he would have been terrified anyway. "I-I don't have any." When the taller one raised a threatening arm, Johnny squealed and shrunk down further. "I swear! I don't! I'm fasting for Lent!"

The two taller males froze, staring at Johnny, before one of them scoffed incredulously. "That's the biggest bullshit excuse I've ever heard," the dark haired one scoffed, shoving Johnny playfully (or as playfully as a bully would, anyway), before his eyes suddenly landed on Alex – who had tried desperately to stay out of the situation by going against his instincts to fight the assholes (he could take them easily) and keeping quiet. "Maybe your cripple can help you out with your debt?"

Alex reacted before he could think, his expression souring at the way he'd been referred to. "No. Fuck off."

There were collective "Ooh"s from the crowd that had gathered to watch the bullying (that was just cruel, in Alex's opinion) at Alex's response, and the two bullies eyed him curiously before approaching him by the lockers. Alex barely flinched as the bigger one punched the locker just by his head, leaving his fist there threateningly.

The smaller one let a slow grin spread on his face. "Oh? The cripple wants to fight? You sure about that?"

Alex stayed silent, staring at them evenly. He didn't want to respond to that nickname and let it stick. Nor did he want to bring unnecessary trouble to himself at the start of the new school year.

Another punch to the locker was delivered (which Alex was sure had a dent in it now), which again failed to get a flinch from Alex.

The dark-haired boy's eyebrows rose, but then he chuckled, acting as if he was unfazed by his behaviour (or rather, lack of thereof). "You think you're a real tough guy, huh? I guess we'll see who's tough when we—"

There was a sudden throat clearing that cut the dark-haired boy's speech short, and a hand appeared on the other side of Alex's head, resting against the locker. All three individuals looked up to see the owner of the hand – a Latino guy with a charming smile on his face. That same Latino that Alex had seen turning up late to school that morning.

"Hey there, Colin, Clayton," he greeted the shorter and taller males in turn, nodding at each of them with half a grin on his face. "What a pleasure to see you both here!"

Colin, the one with the darker hair and spotty (or freckled) face, narrowed his eyes at the male. "What do you want, Rodriguez?"

Rodriguez pretended to think about that for a second, before levelling his gaze at Colin. "For this to stop. Entertainment over. Please and thank you."

"And what if we don't want to stop?" Colin fired back, a scowl on his face at the boy's interruption.

Rodriguez smirked at them both. "You can consider yourselves fired from the auto shop and kicked off the soccer team, then. Not like you were of much use in either, but still." He moved his hand off the locker and instead turned to lean on it, folding his arms. "Unless, I dunno, you decide to move along as I requested."

The two bullies went silent at that. After a few moments of contemplation, during which Clayton spent most of the time actually thinking and Colin spent his time scowling at the Latino boy, the pair finally came to a decision. Or rather, Colin came to a decision for the two of them.

"Fine. We'll leave him alone." The two boys moved away from Alex, eying both teens up and down. "But don't think this'll be the last time we talk, cripple. You better hope your superstar daddy will be here to save you next time."

"We don't even look alike. How could I be his dad?" Rodriguez called out as the two walked away, though not before taking a threatening step towards Johnny and making him flinch terribly. The Latino rolled his eyes at their behaviour, before pushing off the lockers and turning to Alex as the crowd that had gathered cleared away. "You alright, dude?"

Alex pushed himself off the lockers, bending down to grab his crutches. "Yeah, I'll be fine." He straightened up with a sigh, settling his crutches more comfortably against his arms. When he finally felt comfortable, he looked up at the other boy. "Uh... thanks." He offered what he hoped was a grateful smile.

Apparently, it worked. "No problem, Brit." Rodriguez patted Alex's shoulder, before catching someone's eye over Alex's shoulder. "Though, I'm not really the one to thank."

Deciding not to dwell on the fact that this guy had given him yet another nickname that he probably didn't want, Alex looked over to see who the guy had caught eyes with, and found himself looking at a pretty, freckled brunette with green eyes, in a set of casual dungarees and a striped t-shirt. When her eyes met Alex's, she gave a half smile.

"I'll see you around, Brit," Rodriguez called out as he headed down the corridor, in the opposite direction to the brunette. Alex looked back over at him.

"It's Alex!" he called out, causing the other male to pause.

"Call me José," the other male called out before continuing to head off, waving a single hand in the air as farewell.

In the time the two boys had briefly conversed, the corridor had emptied and the brunette approached the remaining injured boy and the bespectacled geek. She stopped about a foot away from the two as Alex turned around to face her. The two stared at each other for a little while, before Alex spoke up.

"Alex," he introduced himself, though he was slightly nervous about the fact that a girl he was pretty sure he hadn't met before had stopped a pair of bullies without even lifting a finger.

She smiled at him. "I got that, don't worry."

Alex's eyes widened. She didn't sound anything like the other students. "You're British," he pointed out, surprised. He hadn't expected another, in all honesty. This place didn't seem like an international school.

"And you're a detective, apparently." She rolled her eyes at him. "Seriously, somebody has to make sure those guys don't do too much damage, and we Brits need to stick up for each other, right?"

Alex stared at her with wide eyes, before smiling a little. "Right."

She nodded, before glancing at Johnny. "Johnny, you're off duty until classes. Go enjoy chess club or programming club or whatever inside activity you've got today, alright?"

Johnny seemed almost relieved, practically running off and leaving Alex with the brunette. The girl began to lead them towards the cafeteria, only just remembering to slow down enough so that he could catch up. About halfway down the corridor, she started up conversation again.

"The name's Christina, but call me Chrissy." She glanced over at him. "Call me Christina and I'll make sure you need a wheelchair instead of crutches."

Alex's eyebrows rose at that. As tempting as it now was to push her buttons and make fun of her, this girl had pretty much just saved him from bullies. He didn't know whether he could deal with that again without her help. Plus, she was the only reminder of home that he didn't have to live with.

She was almost like a breath of fresh air, sprinkled with the typical British sarcasm.

"Chrissy it is, then," Alex concluded.

"Good decision."

"Though I doubt you'd be able to put me in a wheelchair."

"The way you're crippled? I'm pretty sure I can."

"First of all, I'm not crippled – I've just got a broken leg. And secondly, did you not watch Karate Kid?"

"The 80s version or the one with Jaden Smith?"

"Jaden Smith."

"Are you really telling me you could do that front flip?"

"I sure am."

Chrissy cracked a smile as they reached the cafeteria doors, and she pulled one open until it magnetically hooked against the wall behind it. "Maybe I'll hold you to that."

Alex grinned at her. "Go ahead. I'll deliver."

She snorted, before turning to walk into the large room filled with tables, leaving Alex to follow her with a smile on his face.

Somehow, he felt that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


	6. New Meetings, New Greetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of short snippets showing how Alex met each of the members of his group of friends (bar Chrissy, of course) within his first two weeks of school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Competed: May 2019
> 
> Heya, guys! Another oneshot for you, from Alex's side yet again! This is another filler to help out with the background for Scorpia Returns, and another brand new idea when compared with the original set of oneshots. I kind of enjoyed writing this one, actually, and I'm looking forward to fleshing out these characters more with you guys!
> 
> If you have any ideas, suggestions or requests, please don't hesitate to mention in the comments or message me on either ff.net (The Needless Lobsters) or tumblr (andipxndy-writes)!

_Subject: Rider, Alexander_

_Date: September, 2012_

_Location: San Francisco, C.A., U.S._

_Bradley_

Back at Brooklands, Alex was pretty sure that Physics had been one of his favourites. The subject was just so easy to get, and the way it melded so well with maths made it even clearer. A small part of him had always pointed out that his natural physics ability coupled with his love of maths were what had helped him out so much with his missions back in the day, but now he knew he could enjoy it all without even having to think about them.

Still, this was his first day, and the only person he really knew in the room was Johnny, who he'd been assigned to at the beginning of the day. This was his chance to get to know new people… even if he wasn't really up for that.

Limping into the classroom after Johnny, he looked around at the various lab benches. Each bench seated two people, with about twelve benches in the room, and most of the benches seemed to be full. Only two benches – one in the middle of the room, and one at the front of the room – had only one person seated at each.

As everyone got their stuff ready for the day, Johnny made a beeline for the teacher's desk, appearing nervous but determined. Alex followed him over more slowly, curious about what he was going to ask.

As soon as he reached the desk, Johnny cleared his throat to get the teacher's attention. "Uh… Mr Henley?"

A fairly young man looked up from where he had been going over lesson plans, and his eyebrows rose at who he saw. "Johnny! I see you're bruise-less today. What can I do for you?" Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Alex on crutches, but decided not to comment.

Johnny, of course, decided to start by introducing Alex right off the bat. "This is Alex Pleasure."

That was when the teacher decided to turn to him. "Hello, Alex. I assume you're new to the class?"

Alex gave a quick nod. "Yes, Sir."

The teacher's eyebrows rose for a brief moment, before he turned back to Johnny. "And I'm assuming You are the one he's shadowing for the next couple of weeks?"

Johnny nodded. "Yeah. So I was wondering…"

"If you could have Alex sit next to you for this lesson and the next two weeks?" the teacher finished off, before giving a sigh at the hopeful expression on Johnny's face. "Whilst I would love to accommodate to your request, Johnny, there are two problems. One: what did we start on in our last lesson?"

Johnny's face fell at that, and Alex immediately knew that he would be stuck in whatever empty seat Johnny didn't take. "Pair work on our forces project."

"Exactly, meaning that you have to remain with the partner you already have. Even if," he put up a hand to silence Johnny, "even if we've just started the project. And two: would it not be fairer to Alex if he made some new friends in his classes, rather than just stick by you?"

And that was how Alex ended up sitting at the bench in the middle of the room, in the last remaining seat, next to a guy he knew he'd seen before at some point during the day. Was it… homeroom…?

"Hey." Alex jumped and looked over at his partner, who was staring at him intently with blue eyes. When he realised Alex was listening to whatever he was going to say, he gave a crooked smile. "Bradley Hardy."

Alex nodded. "Alex R—Pleasure," he quickly corrected himself, offering a small smile in return and mentally berating himself for the slip-up. He ignored the raised eyebrow he got at the slip of tongue in favour of listening to the teacher, who had begun the lesson.

" _So class, I hope you all had a good night thinking about your projects…_ "

"You're not from around here, are you?"

Alex looked over at that, noticing how Bradley was also facing forward, but seemed to have directed the question at him. At Alex's hesitation, Bradley turned to look at him fully. "Well?"

"Uh… no."

"Thought so. You don't sound like you're from San Fran."

His brows furrowing, Alex stared at Bradley. His accent didn't sound local either. Yes, he sounded American, but his time on both coasts had allowed him to tell the difference between the accents at either end of the country. And he'd heard enough San Fran accents to know that what Bradley had wasn't one. "Neither do you."

Bradley's eyebrows rose. "How can you tell?"

"Your accent isn't from around here."

Bradley opened and closed his mouth a few times, before smiling. "You picked that up real quick."

Alex smiled more fully at that. "I'm observant."

Bradley let out a quiet laugh, turning back to face the from. Just as Alex thought the conversation was over, Bradley spoke again. "I'm from Florida."

Alex stared straight ahead, taking in nothing that was being written on the blackboard. "I'm British."

"That was pretty obvious."

"Really?"

" _So, now that I've explained everything, could you continue with what you did yesterday in your pairs, please._ "

Alex jumped slightly at the announcement that it was the end of the teacher's explanation, and he turned to Bradley with a guilty look on his face. He hadn't heard a word the man had said, because he'd been more focused on having a conversation with this guy instead of listening to what they had to do.

Bradley had a crooked smile on his face, before holding up the notepad he had in front of him. "I have my plans from yesterday, and everything he just spoke about is in the textbook. Don't worry. I've got you."

"Oh, thank God."

Bradley put the notebook down, turning to face Alex fully with his hands together in a praying-motion, his fingertips just barely touching his lips. Alex thought it made him look like some sort of conspiracy theorist, or evil mastermind – which he really could have been, since the only thing Alex knew about him was that he was from Florida. "But before we do that, I propose we get to know a bit more about each other. You know, to help with our thinking patterns through the project."

That made absolutely no sense to Alex whatsoever – what did thinking patterns have to do with a project on forces? – but with a sigh he decided to humour the guy. After all, it was his first day and he was trying to make new friends. What was the worst that could happen?

* * *

_Abena_

Of all the sciences, Alex knew that biology was his least favourite. It wasn't difficult to work out why – it was too easy, there was minimal maths involved, he had literally no interest for it… there was a variety of reasons.

Still, that didn't mean he didn't try hard at the subject. He just… did considerably less work. That was all. Not the right attitude to have, and certainly not the attitude he was going to carry into a new school when he was still trying to figure out the teachers and what made them tick.

Which was why, on his second day of attending his new school, Alex was actually trying to listen to his biology teacher and take notes in the lesson. Unlike his teacher back at Brooklands, this one actually seemed to have passion for her subject and spent a good deal of time explaining anything she thought would be difficult to understand, even going as far as explaining college-level (university-level, to Alex) concepts if someone was really interested.

Not to mention she was good-looking, but Alex was forcing himself to ignore that.

Still, there was one thing that was making it harder to listen in this class. Or rather, one  _person_. As in his Physics class, his new teacher refused to move a student to accommodate to Alex (though she was a lot less remorseful with it than that other teacher had been), meaning that he was seated at the back of the class next to a big black girl.

Big, because she was pretty muscular and Alex knew she could take him in a fight.

Still, she greeted him with a large smile and a, "Hey, I'm Abena, but you can call me Abbie if you want," making him feel pretty welcome the moment he took his seat. She, like Alex, didn't seem to be as interested in Biology, if the doodles in her notepad were any indication (were those… football formations?), but she was a lot more vocal about it than he was.

Basically, she spent most of the lesson commenting on the outfit choices of not only the teacher, but every other person in the class.

"Damn, he looks like he got dressed by a clown."

Alex had to duck his head to stifle his giggles. It was mean, he knew – after yesterday, he knew that bullies were very much alive and thriving in this school – but Abbie had a point. A row from the front, a guy was sat wearing huge shoes and a brightly coloured baggy outfit that Alex thought belonged in a circus. Or, the part of Alex that was very much like his old best friend James thought that. The part of Alex with a heart knew the guy thought he had style and had at least tried to look good for himself.

Abbie didn't seem to think it was working.

"You think his momma actually let him leave the house like that?"

"I think he scooted away in his clown-mobile before she could say anything on the subject."

The girl smirked over at him, before holding up her fist for a fist-bump. "That was a good one, dude."

Alex looked between her face and the fist bump a couple of times, before curling his own hand into a fist and bumping it against hers. He couldn't recall the last time he'd done anything like that, but it felt… weirdly nice to be able to do it with someone. It felt like some sort of acceptance to him.

Abena noticed his hesitance before actually following through with the action. "What, you never fist-bumped before?" she asked, a single eyebrow raised.

"No, no, I have," Alex responded quickly, before shrugging his shoulders. "I guess… well, it's just that…"

"No friends before?"

Alex raised an eyebrow at that. He didn't think he seemed to be the type to seem like he had no friends before… but, he had to admit, that was pretty close to the mark. Having  _few_  friends certainly didn't class as having no friends, but he'd definitely struggled at Brooklands over that year when… well, he'd rather not think about it.

"Oh come on, how many did you  _actually_  have?" She seemed to be teasing him now, and part of Alex was surprised she was behaving like this with him so quickly. People didn't usually see him as the joking type, and he was more the kind of person with dark, dry humour anyway. Sarcasm was his first language – Tom had often joked about that, and teachers were often on the receiving end of it.

"More than you can count on your fingers," Alex responded drily, earning a snort from the girl. He was liking her more already.

"Liar."

"How would you know?"

"Because I do." The girl smirked at him, before glancing back at the front of the room, her eyes widening. "Oh God, he took off the baggy jacket."

Alex let out a snort at that, though this one was loud enough to attract the attention of the teacher, and she looked towards their table.

"Is something the matter, you two?" she called out, causing the whole class to turn towards them. Alex's heart nearly stopped at the sight of all those pairs of eyes staring at him. His whole goal at this school was to blend in and not cause any trouble, and he'd already done that twice in the two days he'd been attending. Fantastic.

On instinct, he snorted again, this time sounding more like a sneeze as he covered his mouth with his hands. Abena caught on almost instantly.

"Gesundheit," she said quickly, and Alex could see that she was trying hard to hide a smirk as she watched him recover from his "sneeze".

He sent a nod her way. "Thanks."

The teacher narrowed her eyes at the pair, suspicious of what they were doing, before deciding to drop it and continue with her lesson as if nothing had happened. "Please sneeze quieter in the future, Mr Pleasure."

"Yes, ma'am," Alex called back, and the sniggers the rest of the class emitted made his cheeks pink and his ears red. His accent made him sound  _so_  out of place in that classroom.

The teacher, on the other hand, just sent him a smile. "I'm not that old. Please just refer to me as 'Miss'."

"Yes, miss."

"Sounds better with his weirdo accent," someone muttered on the bench in front of him, and Alex shrunk down in his seat.

"At least he doesn't sound like a hillbilly, like you, you moron," Abena snapped suddenly, glaring at the speaker in question. When he blushed at being called out, Abbie smirked. "Yeah, that's right. I'm not deaf, and you can go back to the home of your bull-riding, horse-abusing ancestors and leave us civil folk in the city. Go live out your dumbass wild west dream."

"That is enough, Miss Appiah."

"It's App- _ee_ -ah," she corrected. "I've told you, like, a hundred times,  _God_."

Alex had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing at the scene Abena was causing. And all just because someone had laughed at his accent. Hey, maybe this one was a friend to keep around after all.

* * *

_Jasleen_

Alex sighed as he limped to the library on his crutches, a slightly saddened expression on his face. Friday afternoons were apparently Phys. Ed. afternoons, where everyone got to take part in a sport of their choice if they were a Junior or Senior, and a sport of the teacher's choice if they were a Freshman or Sophomore. Of course, with it being the teacher's choice, they also got to choose who got to take part in what, and where they were going to play.

Playing soccer on the school field sounded like a  _dream_  to Alex.

Unfortunately, because he was currently sporting a broken leg, meaning that he couldn't walk (let alone chase after a football), he had two choices – watch everyone play on the field, or go inside and study in the library.

For some reason, his teacher had thought it would be a good idea to make the choice for him and send him inside to the library, which Alex was none too pleased about. But he went anyway, even after receiving the pitying looks from Bradley as he hopped out of the changing rooms and down the corridors.

After a good couple of days of being in the school, Alex had come to realise that the layout wasn't all too difficult to navigate. Sure, there were some stairs here and there, and the place hadn't really bothered to install lifts (elevators, they were called elevators here) for those less able to walk (which was  _stupid_  in Alex's opinion), but the layout was very open plan and easy to understand. And Alex was grateful for that.

Still, the library had to be one of the most difficult rooms in the school to find, simply because it was tucked in somewhere you wouldn't look unless you were purposely searching for the library. Which, Alex supposed, was a good idea if you wanted to ward random students from just popping in and making a ruckus, or hanging out there when they were supposed to be in classes, because it meant only those who intended to study there stayed. It also helped that it was on the complete opposite side of the school to the cafeteria, so no one really attended on their lunch breaks unless they  _really_  needed to get some studying done.

Basically, there was barely anyone in the library ever, and the librarian liked it that way and kept it like that if she could. She only just about tolerated Alex really, accepting him because there was nowhere he could go when Phys. Ed. was on.

Pushing open the door to the room filled with books, Alex was greeted with the distinct musty smell that he was pretty sure came with all libraries, and hobbled into the room, letting the door shut behind him. Despite smelling like any old library, the place certainly didn't look like one, with its large bay windows and light wooden floors, complimenting the off-white coloured walls, the place appeared very modern. Even the shelves looked new, with each one made out of a combination of what appeared to be beechwood and glass, matching the colour scheme set by the walls and flooring.

As soon as the door shut, the librarian looked up from her desk, not too far from the door, to see who had entered. Upon noticing it was only Alex, she gave a single nod, before going back to whatever she was doing on her computer. Alex was pretty sure she was playing Tetris, and had discussed it with Chrissy at one point – they had yet to find evidence of her playing games as she worked.

Whilst the bookshelves were set up in an orderly, structured fashion, some of the study desks in the library were scattered all over the place, with some against the walls and others between rows of shelves – Alex assumed it was so that some people could get privacy in the library whilst they studied, and have the books they needed within a relatively short distance. In the middle of the library, a wide square made space for a good eight or so desks, all clumped together to allow people to study in groups as long as they kept the noise down. Of course, considering no one ever entered the library, that space tended to never be used by groups, and Alex more often than not found himself sitting there alone, because it gave him enough space to set down all of his books without being constrained to one desk. And the last couple of times he'd come, he'd been alone, which had been perfect.

This time? He found that he was very much  _not_  alone.

The teen came to a sudden stop when he spotted a new individual, someone he was pretty sure he'd never seen before, sat at one of the desks in the centre space. Immediately, Alex was on edge. Sure, he was new, and other than Chrissy, Bradley and Abena he hadn't really made any friends – he wouldn't even consider Johnny a friend, but more of an acquaintance (he didn't really need the guy anymore when Chrissy usually hung out with him and answered his questions) – but he at least recognised the people he shared classes with. And from what he could recall, there was no other person who needed to spend their time in the library instead of doing Phys. Ed.

Pursing his lips, he limped over to one of the desks, unceremoniously putting his bag down on the table and meeting the other individual's eyes when they jumped, looking up at him.

He gave a slightly awkward smile. "Uh, hi."

The person, who Alex now recognised as a middle-Eastern girl with big brown eyes and curly dark hair, offered him a nervous smile before ducking down behind her book. The lack of a verbal response from her got Alex to raise his eyebrows, but he said nothing as he sat down, beginning to get all of his stuff out of his bag. He set down his notepads and sighed, looking over the different titles before picking up the one labelled "Math" and placing it right in front of him. His first class of the year, and he'd already been dumped with a pile of homework to not only do for the next lesson, but to catch up with everything he'd missed.

His teacher did not mess around.

He was pretty sure he'd gone over the second question multiple times when he heard a voice.

"You're doing it wrong."

He looked up sharply to see the girl watching him from over her book, still hiding half of her face behind the pages. When he sent her a quizzical look, she slowly lowered her book and began to lean forward so that she could get a better look at his work.

"You're trying to solve that equation simply when you're meant to be completing the square. You're using more steps than necessary."

Alex frowned down at the page in front of him. From what he could remember, he had always been good at maths, and stuff like this had come naturally to him – but this looked  _nothing_  like an equation where you completed the square.

It seemed as if Alex's confusion lasted too long for the girl to handle, because she sighed before getting up and moving to sit next to him. Alex watched her cautiously as she took his pencil from his hand and began to scribble on the page, solving the equation faster than Alex was sure he ever would.

"Damn…"

"It's math. It's simple."

"It's bloody not."

"It bloody well is."

Alex jumped at the sudden switch from a smooth Californian accent to what he could only describe as a British-Indian accent. This girl was clearly more than she let on. But instead of prying, he gave her a slight smile.

"Thanks…" He trailed off to show that he wanted her name to complete the answer. She contemplated this for a few moments, sinking down in her chair and letting her cheeks turn red in embarrassment. Alex got the distinct feeling that she didn't talk to people like she had just spoken to him, and that she spent more of her time hiding in the corner and people-watching.

"Jasleen," she eventually responded, looking like she desperately wished she could hide behind a book right then.

Alex's lips quirked up a little at that. "I'm Alex," he responded, smiling a little more when she let out what appeared to be a smile more on the satisfied end of the spectrum.

* * *

_Jos_ _é_

If there was one thing Alex wished he could do more than anything in his new school, it was join a sports team. Soccer, baseball, even American football – he just wanted to be active. It was just that his leg being in a cast prevented him from doing anything he would have considered fun.

Which was why he was sat up on the bleachers as he watched the school's soccer team training session. From what he could see, the training wasn't all that hard-core – not like anything he had been used to from back home. He would've had an easy time completing those exercises. Then he remembered that this was the States, and soccer (he couldn't believe he'd already adapted and turned to the dark side) wasn't as prevalent a sport as their classic American football was.

Still, as he watched the guys on the field, he couldn't help but feel that they could have at least been trying a little harder in the training session. Their coach wasn't putting that much effort into them.

If this was the way all high school football teams in the States trained, then their league had to suck.

Watching the team more intently, Alex realised that he recognised one of the players on the team – it was the Latino boy that had turned up late to school on his first day, and had stopped the bullies from beating him to a pulp later that exact same day (Alex would never admit to the second thing, but even he knew that he was useless at fighting with those broken leg and only crutches to defend himself). Leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, he watched the team intently, vaguely noticing the cheerleading squad practicing on the field behind them.

"Keep up the pace, Rodriguez!"

"Miller, get free! Make space for yourself!"

"Keep up the marking, Williams! Don't lose your man!"

"That was foul play, Harding! Don't let me see that in a match!"

Alex simply shook his head as he watched the team run around on the field. Aside from José, who looked fairly comfortable on the field and didn't seem to be making the same mistakes as the others, the team absolutely sucked. They were playing like a Conference league team that deserved to get relegated. Alex knew there were  _preteens_  who could play better than that.

After a good hour of training, where Alex ended up on his phone bored half the time because nothing entertaining was actually happening, the team headed to the changing rooms to grab their stuff and head home. Or, at least, most of the team did. A couple of the guys headed up the bleachers walking right towards Alex.

One of them was that guy, Rodriguez (Alex recalled him calling himself  _José_ ).

José was the first to greet him as they approached. "Hey, Alex, right? Nice of you to drop by one of our training sessions!"

Alex's lips squirmed up into a small smile. "Hi, José."

The Latino moved to squat on the bench in front of Alex – a weird position to take up, but Alex was coming to realise that José was a quirky person by nature. "You enjoy spectating?"

Alex gave an awkward shrug, realising that the other boys that had come along with José were watching him. He didn't want to make a slip-up just in case it ruined his chances of ever making friends with these guys or getting on the team when he was better.

Still, it didn't seem as if José would accept it.

"Oh come on, you have to have an opinion on our training today, right?"

Alex's eyes shot towards the two boys by the other male, and then back at José, hoping he got the hint. After a couple of moments, it seemed he had.

"Oh, these are Blake and Robin, a couple of the other players on the team. Blake doubles up in basketball – he made captain this year."

Alex realised that he actually recognised Blake from somewhere before, and then realised the last time he'd seen him his face had been practically glued to Sabina's (he repressed a gag at that). Robin on the other hand… he hadn't met the guy before, but he was more than recognisable on that field.

Robin, simply put,  _sucked_.

Whilst Blake gave Alex a small smile and a nod, Robin continued to stare stonily at Alex, and the fair-haired teen got the distinct feeling that Robin would either disagree with or disapprove of anything Alex said at that moment in time. Which probably made it easier for him to speak his mind on the topic of their training session.

"Do you play that way in matches?"

The two behind José gave each other quizzical looks, whilst José himself gave Alex a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Before Alex could respond in what he hoped was a soft enough blow that it wouldn't hurt the egos of the three older guys in front of him, four girls approached them from the field – Sabina and Chrissy he definitely recognised, but the third and fourth were a pair of twins that Alex had seen around but had never spoken to, and probably for good reason. As soon as they saw Alex, they appeared to be looking down their noses at him, though one of them immediately latched onto Robin.

"Hey, Alex," Sabina greeted as she climbed over a bleacher to stand beside her boyfriend, Blake, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. "I didn't realise you were sat up here. I thought you got a ride home?"

"Clearly he wanted some entertainment before heading home," Chrissy pointed out as she plopped herself down onto the bench beside Alex. "That's what you wanted, right, Alex? Entertainment by watching the soccer team practice? Because they're a joke?"

José had to bring his hand up to hide his snort as the others glared at her.

"Actually, Alex was about to tell us what he thought of our training session," Blake inputted, folding his arms as he watched Alex curiously. "He sat here for a while, so he's got to have an opinion of it, right?"

Alex looked nervously between the small crowd watching him. He had never wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out more than this moment in his life, and there was no way he could get out of this situation with Blake saying something like that. He had to say  _something_. But he couldn't just  _lie_  because that would just be an insult to football.

Right?

"You guys sucked," he blurted out suddenly, his ears tinting red. "There wasn't a single pass successfully made other than those made by Rodriguez, your dribbling is similar to that of a five-year-old, and most of you still toe-punt to shoot."

There was silence as the crowd took in what Alex said, shock clear on everyone's faces but Chrissy's.

She laughed.

It didn't make Alex feel any better.

* * *

_Estefania_

Alex sighed as he stared into his locker, his eyes roaming over the contents. Books, books, and more books – not even a sports kit. The fact that he couldn't do a single sport because of his injury was getting more and more depressing by the day, and he was really beginning to hate being stuck in the library because there was nothing else he could do.

Screw D.C. and all the crap he went through there.

Screw all those ex-SCORPIA agents who managed to survive and escape. They could go drown at the bottom of the Pacific for all he cared.

This was bullcrap.

He began to mutter to himself sourly about how his first week was already sucking badly when he heard the locker next to him open, and he went quiet. In all his time at the school (which came up to a grand total of a week and two days), he hadn't yet met his locker neighbour – sure, it had only been about a week, but he'd assumed that, since classes all changed over at the same time, there would have been a point in time where he met them. But he supposed not.

Well, not until now, at least.

Leaning back a little, he was surprised to find that his locker neighbour wasn't actually a guy, like he'd previously assumed – which was a shame, he supposed, because having close guy friends with lockers nearby was always useful – but a girl with dark hair tied up wearing what looked like a summer dress, pulling out a few books. When she looked up, she visibly jumped and swore in what Alex clearly recognised as Spanish (or, at least, a form of it).

"Oh, uh, sorry," Alex mumbled, his cheeks going pink as he turned back to his locker. He hadn't realised that the girl was actually pretty until she'd turned to look at him. Oh  _crap_.

She seemed to mutter something – in Spanish again – as she closed her locker. "No, it's alright. Honestly." She turned towards him with a small smile.

Alex blinked, slightly surprised that she seemed to have overcome the shock so quickly, before smiling at her. "Uh, I'm Alex."

"Alex, yes. I know who you are."

The smile faded from his face at that, his eyes wide. He was… known in this school already? Oh no… "Uh… how?"

The smile grew on her face at the apparent surprise on Alex's. "Oh, there are many reasons." She placed her books down on the ground, before beginning to list them off on her fingers. "One: we're in the same homeroom class – I sit in the row behind you, near the window. It's a very nice view, and I enjoy looking outside, though I doubt you will be able to get away with doing the same from your seat at the front of the room. Two: we share the same science classes, though you talk too much in those and it is  _very_  distracting, particularly with Abbie – placing you there was a poor decision on Miss Lilly's part. Three: you are often in the library, and I see you sitting in the same place. You've actually befriended my study partner, Jasleen, which is very kind of you considering she is very shy. And finally," she leaned down to pick up her books, standing up again with a smile, "you are the boy who had the balls to criticise the soccer team to the three 'top' players in the team, though I'm guessing by your opinion it would not be very hard to  _be_  one of the top."

Somewhere during her list of explanations, Alex had gone slack-jawed. He hadn't realised they shared so many classes – to be honest, in his first week, he had just been trying to get by. Yes, making all of the new friends was nice he supposed, but it was also draining, and he hadn't wanted to branch out quite yet.

And yet, this girl already knew who he was and what (stupid) things he'd done.

He let out an awkward laugh. "Does… does everyone know about the soccer thing…?" he asked nervously.

The girl just smiled. "They didn't before yesterday."

Alex groaned. There went his chances of joining the soccer team once his leg was healed. Who would want a critic when they didn't even know whether he could play? For all they knew, he could be really out of touch or just a sucky player with good tactical knowledge.

At his groan, the girl's smile widened even more. "Don't worry, many people agree with you. In fact, it's a truth that the team have been hiding from for a while. I'm glad that you stood up to them and told them what you truly believed – especially to my brother's face. He doesn't usually take to criticism well."

Alex's brows furrowed for a moment, before the understanding clicked. This girl had to be José's sister, most likely younger? He had to admit, he could definitely see the resemblance between the two, and if he hadn't known that this girl was a sophomore instead of a junior he would have suggested that they were twins.

"José can play, though," Alex pointed out, pulling out the last of his books before elbowing his locker door shut. He fumbled a bit with putting the books into his bag as he spoke. "He pretty much carries that team, I'm guessing."

"That guess would be correct."

Alex cracked a small grin at that, looking up at her as he zipped his bag shut. "That team will fall apart without him."

"They are already falling apart  _with_  him," the girl commented. "He has no good support when he plays."

"That, I clearly saw." Alex slung his bag onto his back, hesitating for a few moments before asking, "Hey, uh, I never got your name."

"That's because I never gave it to you." She seemed to hesitate, before holding out a hand for him to shake. "My name is Estefania."

Alex looked down at her hand, before extracting his own from one of the crutches and shaking it firmly. "Nice name. You're Latino?"

"What gave it away: my name, my accent, or my complexion?" When his face went pink, she laughed. "Don't worry, I don't think you are racist or anything. You are actually quite sweet for a British boy."

He raised a single eyebrow at that as his blush died down. "A 'British boy'?" he asked.

"I have met many Brits. Many are rude."

"I apologise for the morons of my country."

"I will also apologise for mine in advance."

Alex let out a genuine laugh at that. "The Americans or the Latinos?"

"Both." Letting go of his hand, she held her books tightly to her chest. "Do you have anywhere specific to be now? I was going to go to the library to study with Jasleen – you're welcome to join us."

Alex would've said yes, had it not been for the fact that he knew he had an appointment that afternoon – Edward was taking him to see that psychologist for the first time, which Alex was fairly nervous about. He knew it would be at least a reasonable session, but he was still nervous. "Sorry, I've, uh… I've got an appointment this afternoon, and I really need to be there."

"That's fine." The smile remained plastered on her face. "We usually are in the library after school, so if you ever want to take a break from berating our soccer players…"

"I'll be there, got it." He grinned at that. "Thanks for the offer, though."

"It's no problem." She checked her watch. "Ah, I should go. Jasleen is waiting on me."

"Yeah, I guess my ride is outside too…"

"See you tomorrow, Alex." Estefania gave him one last smile before turning and walking away, heading towards the school library. And as she walked, Alex couldn't help but watch her, a smile on his face.

_Huh. She's nice._


End file.
